application

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Being Proficient Over Just Learning Something

Learning to do something new is exciting, but it doesn’t take long before being proficient at that new thing is what’s really exciting.

Being Proficient Over Just Learning Something

I remember when I first learned three chords on the guitar – I was thrilled. I could strum out a song – many songs – with three chords.

The problem was, though I knew those three chords, it took me too long to contort my fingers into position for those chords.

Sure I could play three chords, and sure I could play a song, but the pauses in between the chords, while I maneuvered my fingers to the next chord, made singing along to the song an agonizing experience.

I needed to become more proficient with my chord progressions. 

It’s like that with most things. We are thrilled when we can do something but we are more thrilled when we can do that something quickly, or without hesitation, or even without thinking. 

We want to be able to do that new thing in less steps or with less effort. There is a desire to cut down on the time it takes or the space it takes up.

I’ve watched YouTube videos of people doing some amazing tricks. The trick is often jaw-dropping, but it’s probably near impossible to repeat. You can’t become proficient at tricks.

The other day I picked up a computer mag and started going through it. It had some tips and tricks to make working on my computer faster and easier. There was one that caught my eye and I started looking into how I could use it with my work.

I’ve been using a Mac Book Pro for many, many years. … After a while you think you know your way around your computer pretty well. You think you’re doing things on your computer the best way possible. 

But then you read about a process that you didn’t know or never really considered to be useful to you.

It’s sort of like always putting Ikea furniture together without instructions.  

You become very acquainted with the way they engineer things and how to insert and use their fasteners. And then, after building 10 to 20 different items over the years, you discover that the piece of paper with the pictures that came in the box wasn’t a comic strip for your children. It was actually the instructions on how to put the item together. 

Now you’ve discovered a way to be more proficient in building that table or storage unit. You don’t have to undue that one leg because you put it on upside down and backwards.

Well, that’s what I found in this magazine. I’ve been setting up the study apps on my computer the same way for years. It’s worked well for me. 

I realize now that I could have been working more efficiently if I had become proficient at using this new-found study set up. 

One little article later and I have a more efficient way to study than I did last week.  

Here’s the thing: We often use the same method to discover and apply personal application of God’s word, the Bible. In fact, you probably have been using the same method for so long you think you are going about it the best way possible. But it’s more like a comfortable path you’ve found. You can become more proficient in applying God’s word to your life if you are willing to seek new methods. Be open and alert to new ways.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Where can you look for new study methods? Leave you comments and questions below.

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Why You Should Reuse Your Plastic Bags

I need a show of hands today – how many of you reuse those ziplock plastic bags? That’s what I thought … only my wife raised her hand.

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It doesn’t matter what size of ziplock bag. In fact, the other day Lily was putting away a large, freshly washed ziplock bag and exclaimed, “I really like this large size. They are so handy.”  How can you be attached to a bag?  Really!?

Now, I don’t have anything against ziplock bags. I use them all the time. But let’s get one thing straight: they are to be used and then tossed. The idea behind them is simple: easy disposable.

Did you hear me, Lil? They are disposable! But there we were the other day, washing ziplock bags. Six of them, all in one dish washing session. That has to be a record and there should be a law or at least a rule against it.

I hate drying those bags. I know it’s all in my head. I just see them as a convenience item, something to be used and then chucked … I mean recycled, that’s what I mean.

In fact, by using them over and over, we are probably preventing some great recycled plastic product from being made. Ya, because my wife likes to recycle ziplock bags, we may be slowing down the production of surgical tubing or vehicle air bags or something important like that.

I just don’t like drying those bags. They are not hard like a glass, plate or even a plastic container. They don’t feel like they should be washed and dried. They look all wrinkly  and worn after they have been washed, and sometimes, the zip part of the bag doesn’t work as well.

The week before, my daughter was home and was helping with the dishes. She looked at the bags on the counter and asked, “Do you wash these?” I turned, looked at her, shook my head and mouthed the word, “no”.  But somehow Lily heard that and said, “Yes, wash them please.”

My wife insisted. But six bags, that’s over the top. She had been away for a week and there’s no way I had been collecting them. I wondered if she saved them from her trip or found them in an airport somewhere and thought they might come in handy.

I dried them but I didn’t like it. Now, if the next time I see one of those bags, it’s filled with a bunch of raspberries, I guess I won’t mind having dried it. I love raspberries.

Here’s the thing:  There are many words, verses or whole passages in the Bible that you’ve read but don’t have a desire to read again. You don’t see their application, they don’t seem beneficial, or they may be downright disturbing. Don’t neglect those parts of the Bible as being disposable or not applicable. At some point, that passage may have some meaning to you (yes, even genealogies). You may find an uninteresting passage suddenly now has particular application to you when it never really did before. It’s all there for our benefit, so take advantage of ALL of it. Get the most out of God’s Word.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you wanted to dispose of but later found useful? Leave your comment below.