teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me (Psalm 25:4-5).
It seems to me the psalmist captured the spirit of the Lenten journey. The spirit of Lent is one of teachableness - the willingness to learn and, thereby, grow.
Teach me - make me to know your ways - lead me in your truth. Over and over, the psalmist prayed for the LORD to help him learn the ways of God.
A teachable spirit recognizes that God's ways and our ways are different ... not just different, radically different. (See Isaiah 55:8-9.) Our self-centered, self-serving spirit is the polar opposite of the self-giving, servant spirit of God that was revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. We use power (in its many forms) for our own benefit, often against others, while God uses power to serve others. God uses power to bring forth life and nurture it to maturity.We naturally live out of merit-based, if ... then thinking. God relates to us out of grace and forgiveness. Our merit-based, if ... then thinking leads to us-them thinking in which we divide the world into tribes of those like us and those who are different. Our relationships become transactional as we barter acceptance in exchange for conformity to our ways of thinking and doing things. Grace-based thinking teaches us to embrace each and every person as a beloved child of God. Anxiety and fear drive how we look at life and how we relate to others. Joy and peace permeate the ways of God. Scarcity thinking governs how we pursue, accumulate, and hoard things while Jesus taught us to trust the generosity of God and the abundance that life offers. Knowing and living God's ways do not naturally flow from our hearts and minds. They must be learned ... intentionally pursued.
God's ways are not our ways. We walk the Lenten journey with the awareness they must be learned.
Such a teachable spirit goes against our nature. I am reminded of Peter's (along with the other disciples') resistance to hearing what Jesus had to say about the suffering that awaited him in Jerusalem (Mark 8:32; 9:32). What Jesus taught did not match their understanding of the messiah. It did not feed the desires they had attached to that understanding. (See Mark 9:33-37; 10:35-45.) Their struggle to understand is the dominant theme of Jesus's journey to Jerusalem after which the Lenten journey is patterned. They struggled to understand because what Jesus taught went against how/what they thought. He taught the self-giving, servant ways of God.
The disciples' struggle is our struggle. I am struck by how much of our religious life that we call "Christian" is nothing more than our innate human thinking and relating dressed up in religious garb. I am struck by how little those of us who call ourselves Christian reflect the grace, forgiveness, compassion, generosity, and glad welcome that Jesus taught and lived. We have created God in our likeness, according to our desires, rather than allow the Spirit to recreate us in the likeness of Christ.
Underlying the teachable spirit the psalmist expressed is humility. Humility is the acknowledgement that, no matter what I know, there is always more to learn. There is always more to God and God's ways than I can grasp. In other words, what I believe is not the standard that defines truth.
We live in a religious environment that emphasizes belief. We argue over the right position (read: "biblical" position) to take on issues. We divide into groups based on agreement in what we believe. We demonize and attack those who do not think like we do. This over-focus on belief fosters a not-so-subtle "I'm right, You're wrong" arrogance - the opposite of the spirit of humility. This arrogance is seldom recognized, much less named. Consequently, it is a barrier to the teachable spirit the psalmist exhibited. Rather than being open to new understanding, we judge what we hear based on how it conforms to what we already believe.
The psalmist's prayer reminds us that learning the ways of God must be translated into living the ways of God. The psalmist spoke about a path to walk, that is, a way of life to be lived. The psalmist prayed for guidance in walking that path: "lead me."
Ultimately, learning the ways of God is about being changed. We don't learn so that we can know; we learn so we can do. What we believe (orthodoxy) must be translated into a change in how we live (orthopraxy). Our objective - and God's objective for us - is to live a life patterned after the character of God. We, like Jesus, are to be the in-the-flesh embodiment of the character of God in our world. We are to live the ways of God just as Jesus did.
I a reminded of the Spirit's work in our lives. The Spirit teaches us the ways of God (John 14:25-26). The Spirit guides us in how to put those ways into practice (Acts 13:1-4). The Spirit empowers us to do what we cannot do in our own strength (Acts 1:8).
The psalmist has much to teach us about the Lenten journey. We walk the journey with a teachable, humble spirit that is open to learning the ways of God Jesus taught. We walk the journey knowing what the Spirit will teach us will challenge what/how we currently think. We walk the journey with a commitment to not just learn, but to allow what we learn to change us. We walk the journey with a commitment to grow in the likeness of Christ.
May such be true of us this Lenten season ... and every season of our lives!
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