Personal Development

It would be easy to see the concept of a ‘living sacrifice’ as an oxymoron. However, the imagery of a living sacrifice can become a revolutionary metaphor for a life of service. To experience the abundant life that Jesus offered by becoming a ‘living sacrifice’ (Rom 12:1) one must follow His example and pursue a counter-cultural lifestyle in at least three ways: orienting our lives around what is important, learning to choose the best over the good, and incorporating rhythms of personal renewal.

 Learning to ride a bike is one of the early steps towards independence that many of us experienced as a child. The bicycle provided us with the means of going further and faster. I have good memories of exploring our neighbourhood and the nearby countryside on my bike, accompanied by my friends. However, learning to ride a bike is a tricky business, which usually involves the painful experience of falling off. That process is greatly improved by using training wheels - a pair of small supporting wheels that are fixed to the either side of the rear wheels of the bike. They help you to gain a degree confidence and control on the bike, while the training wheels keep you vertical.

Training wheels, though, are not just used for cycling. Most of us go through life with the training wheels on in at least one area of our lives – where we are dependent on some form of support system that will prevent us from failing. While these support systems provide a degree of stability, they also prevent us from becoming all that God wants us to be. God’s intention for all of us is to reach a point of maturity - where we are not reliant on these external influences and support systems. The Apostle Paul describes maturity as a point when we are no blown of course by every wind of adversity the hits us (Ephesians 4:14).

Isn’t it great when God speaks to us? Isn’t it fantastic when the God who made the Universe makes a promise to us? We get inspired, we cry tears of joy, we’re moved, we’re so grateful to God. We go home, we go to bed, we wake up and God’s message to us warms our hearts. Maybe that inspiration lasts a few days, maybe a week, maybe even two weeks, but slowly the inspiration wears away and disappears. All we’re let with is a distant memory.

The inspiration and the promises of God are wonderful, but many times we find that it fades away before we see those promises fulfilled. Sometimes the pressures and challenges of everyday life take over, and we lose faith and lose hope and find that we are far from the promises of God for our lives.

Our experiences with formal education greatly influence our approach to learning. Here learning is often defined as acquiring more information about a certain subject in order to produce the right answers to questions and problems. Most of us have been students at some stage of our lives and know the pressure of assignment deadlines and studying for exams. We have memories of intense study before an exam and late nights completing assignments just before they are due. These techniques are often sufficient to get us through academic studies, but are totally inadequate to meet the challenges of daily living. 

Jack was a skilled factory worker, and he had been for years. Although the job helped pay the bills, he found that it was a drudgery to go to work. After lasting out over two decades at the company, he was made redundant in a spate of cut-backs at the factory. He needed to find a new job, but he didn’t want to return to the kind of life he was living before. As he thought about the kind of role he’d really like, he realised that he wanted to work with the mentally handicapped. So he started to do some volunteer work to see how he would cope in that sort of environment. Though the work was challenging, he loved it. A couple of months later he applied for a job working with some mentally handicapped children in a day care centre. Jack had landed his dream job! He is energised and passionate about his job, and he is loved and appreciated by the people he works with. Jack is a new man.

Learning to ride a bike is one of the early steps towards independence that many of us experienced as a child. The bicycle provided us with the means of going further and faster. I have good memories of exploring our neighbourhood and the nearby countryside on my bike, accompanied by my friends. However, learning to ride a bike is a tricky business, which usually involves the painful experience of falling off. That process is greatly improved by using training wheels - a pair of small supporting wheels that are fixed to the either side of the rear wheels of the bike. They help you to gain a degree confidence and control on the bike, while the training wheels keep you vertical.

Training wheels, though, are not just used for cycling. Most of us go through life with the training wheels on in at least one area of our lives – where we are dependent on some form of support system that will prevent us from failing. While these support systems provide a degree of stability, they also prevent us from becoming all that God wants us to be. God’s intention for all of us is to reach a point of maturity - where we are not reliant on these external influences and support systems. The Apostle Paul describes maturity as a point when we are no blown of course by every wind of adversity the hits us (Ephesians 4:14).