Teach Me

Teach Me

Pastor, writer, songwriter Brian McLarin was struggling mightily with his faith. He questioned everything he had ever been taught about God, the church, and discipleship. One day on a walk, with doubts churning in his head and heart, he remembered a Bible verse he learned as a child. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” He said “For the first time it dawned on me: there’s a difference between doubting God and doubting my understanding of God, just as there is a difference between trusting God and trusting my understanding of God. Would I be able to doubt my understanding of God while simultaneously trusting God beyond my understanding? FaithAfterDoubt Brian McLarin, p.92

In time that question led him to a place of seeking, seeking God in all things. Once he realized his lack of understanding and his trust in God could coexist, it gave him a hunger to know; a hunger to be taught. That is where Peter was in our passage on Sunday. He had a hunger for understanding God. He said, “Teach me Lord. Teach me”. And that is sentiment Rev. Sarah Speed captures in our poem for this week.

Teach Me

Teach me about the ways of the wind,

about the ways of the world,

about the ways of the heart.

Teach me about the soft crook of my lover’s arm,

and the way two souls can hold each other close.

Teach me about forgiveness, about the language of I’m sorry and the softness of sincerity.

Teach me about abundance, about seventy-times-seven and all the days of my life.

Teach me about joy, about its contagious weaving

and its soul-healing.

Teach me about mercy, about open hands and deep breaths. Teach me about the dawn of time and the stars in the sky. Teach me what matters most.

Teach me what is mine to do.

Teach this achingly curious heart until I run out of questions

or I run out of days.

Teach me some melodious sonnet, and I will have a life well-lived.

 

Peace, Josie