“If
any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God,
who gives generously to all
without finding fault,
and it will be given to you.”
James 1:5 Verse
of the Week for #P31OBS #TameYourList
As I have
shared, growing up I had obstacles (in the form of people) blocking my journey
of HOPE. Of all the differences I had from my family: skin color, religion,
political parties, sports teams, the hardest on them was my need to know…everything!
My passion for learning began as a love to read. The books I escaped to offered
me a place where I could cry and laugh as loud as I wanted, where I could disagree
with the characters but they would need me to open the pages of the book to
bring them to life. As a professed atheist I had even read through the KJV translation
of the Bible knowing I had to be armed to rationalize (a nice way to say bully)
people out of their faith.
Growing up on
the South Side of Chicago in a small city neighborhood THE worst thing you
could hear was, “you are a born northsider.” That insult may seem harmless but
what it meant was: you think too much, you talk too much and if we have to hear
your mouth another moment we are going to leave you on the Dan Ryan (the
closest Expressway that led to the North Side)! It surprised no one when I
joined the High School paper and within a semester was an Editor. I proudly
shared my bylines knowing I would be met with hostility and guilt for not
minding my own business. School was a safe place for me, a place where I was surrounded
by activities that earned me appreciation, attention and in my warped and
emotionally stunted youth that meant LOVE. Education was the place I wasn’t a
burden or an embarrassment but the star. I am sure it won’t surprise you when I
say I am the first person in my family to attend and graduate from a four year
college and I majored in words: Magazine Writing with a Minor in Creative
Non-Fiction.
Yes,
it was my dying HOPE from life’s trails that brought me to my knees, to prayer
and on a journey with God but Jesus wooed me with knowledge. The Lord met my curiosity
with ready answers through a gentle whisper in my heart, opening the Bible to
the passage I needed, encouragement in fellowship and Worship music. Each time
I questioned God I was met with love, grace, mercy and peace. The day I was
saved I hoped online, opened up Google and typed in these words: I need a case
for Christ. Not only is there an amazing series of books called a Case for
Christ, For the Real Jesus, For a Creator, a Case for Christ Study Bible and
now even a Case for Grace but they are written by a man I grew up reading, Lee
Strobel (http://www.leestrobel.com/)!
I would spend hours in the library hunkered over the microfiche reading his
crime stories, he was a real news man who I respected and admired and now he was
also a believer and exactly who God knew I would need to help me understand
what I was feeling, learning and desiring!
I have the ultimate HOPE in my Lord and Savior,
I live by a blind faith in God but blind does not mean uninformed but rather
willing to let Jesus do His work in me in His time, in His way and for His
will. Unlike the environment I was raised in, afraid to speak up and ridiculed
for always rocking the boat, I am now free to speak to God whenever I want
about anything I need. I have always been known to call myself a lifelong
student because I love to learn but I have never had more passion for knowledge
than I do as a Child of the Most High!
You may not own and
regularly read from five study Bibles as I do, or search for even more
commentaries online either but a quest for knowledge with God simply starts
with opening His word. As it says in our verse today, James 1:5, the Lord
rewards our pursuit of wisdom generously. The Bible may have been written thousands of
years ago and by men but it is a gift to us today, the ultimate user manual but
you must crack it open and that is not just in print form anymore! I have an
APP on my phone that reads the Bible to me, so even when I am so sick I can’t
open my eyes or sit up I can still have His word wash over me. Don’t believe
the lie that you are not smart enough to understand what you are reading or
hearing, ask God for insight and help and He will honor that prayer every time.
Before I read and study the word I pray Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes that I may
see wonderful things in Your law” and He has never failed me. Just a few short
weeks after coming to Faith I sat in a room with thirty women who knew their
Bibles and the sound of them turning right to the passage we were reading was
deafening and keeping me from what God had for me in that Bible Study class. I
closed my eyes and prayed in my heart for God to help me let Go of that distraction
and the next thing I knew the Bible was opening to the exact page I needed! God
longs for time with you, Jesus died to have a relationship with you and the
Holy Spirit lives inside of you guiding you and praying for you! Open yourself
up to the greatest love story ever told, yours and Gods and it is written for
you in His word, called the Bible. 
