More From Harold Best

I finally have had a bit more time to read. I'm really going to try to make that a regular occurrence.

Unceasing Worship by Harold Best. Excellent book. Every word he writes is so specific, so clear, so meaningful. As I've been reading, I have been trying to write down interesting portions, or quotable sections. I don't know how many times I've had to restrain myself, because if I wrote down everything I considered writing down I'd have practically made a copy of the book! Anyway, to a few of my latest specific thoughts.

Reading in the fourth chapter ("The Corporate Gathering and Authentic Worship") I came across this passage:

Specializing in the things of the faith should be so important to laypersons that they do the kind of reading and thinking that lead to the formation of a truth-centered world-view that informs the whole of their living. No believer should say that there is no time to do this in his or her "busy schedule."

So true. How often do we tell ourselves we are "too busy" to spend time "with the Lord" (Wait, shouldn't that be always? Thoughts for another posting...)? How many times have I not read even this very book, simply because I was too busy, too tired, too lazy. As a Christian, a desire to read and study and grow closer to the Holy Spirit should pour out from a life of worship, if I were truly living one. In truth, in the (unfortunately few) occasions in which I actually do spend this sort of time (like right now), I love it! I find it to be so spiritually fulfilling! In fact, when I had the opportunity last semester to preach at the Campus House, I found it very interesting that the best part of that whole experience was not the actual sermon delivery, nor any congratulations I received afterward. Instead, I found the Bible study (the deepest personal study I had done to date) to be incredibly rewarding and fascinating.

To take those thoughts a little further, let us first look at another excerpt from Best's book, just a little later in the same chapter:

Another way of stating this is that Christians should be amateur theologians and Scripture specialists, but in the older meaning of the word. Amateurs are those who love something (hence the Latin ama at the beginning of the word), enough to study and practice it as thoroughly as possible, to become skilled in it, without the need to call it a profession or a specialized calling.

Simply analysing this passage is easy; it makes lots of sense as an extension of the previous discussion. However, how might this apply to me, specifically? Well, I am honestly not sure how to take this. I could stretch it one way and say that I need not go into vocational ministry, I should simply be an amateur theologian. However, I am also quite sure that Best does not intend to imply that some people are specifically called into vocational ministry (he in fact says so just sentences later). So where do I fit in here?

For now, my plan will continue to be more or less like it has been, I just now have some new terminology for it: I will continue to become the best amateur theologian I can be, as I also continue my studies in Music Education. In the time between now and graduation (still a year and 4 months), I will seek the Lord's will and find out what he has planned for me.

Thank you Lord for your many blessings, even those we cannot readily see.