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It’s that time of year again. Summer has a few more weeks to go but school is just around the corner. School supplies are stacked high in stores that carry them and some schools already have lists of things various grade levels will need to start the year. Some churches like ours are already collecting supplies to fill backpacks for students whose parents can’t afford to buy all that is needed. For those of us whose children are long past school age, the cost of things needed can be shocking so it’s great to help those whose budgets can’t stretch far enough.

This time of year reminds me also of the 15 years I spent as a teacher and the mixed emotions that came as the return to school neared. There was already work starting for teachers several weeks before students marched through the doors. No matter what subjects were mine to teach, I needed to prepare for each one. That always reminded me of the ones I liked the best as a student (history, geography, and English). They made sense to me and my love of them often stemmed from how a great teacher taught them. Other subjects that I was not so fond of (math and science) brought challenges because they didn’t seem to make as much sense to me and the teachers I had didn’t find ways to connect the dots for me (especially in math courses).

English could include literature but usually started with the basics of grammar so we could know how to construct a sentence that communicated to someone else. There was a reason why we needed to learn what and how nouns, pronouns, verbs, objects, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions were used and rules that needed to be mastered. It wasn’t just so we could write a sentence that was understood by someone else and then add more sentences to write paragraphs and essays but also so that we could better understand what we read in our language-based subjects.

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Some of you might be groaning as I bring up memories of those days. School required us to harness the mind God gave us and train it so it could help us survive and thrive in the grown-up world ahead of us. We would need more skills than bouncing, catching, or throwing a ball, riding a bike, and all the things we might prefer doing. What all that looked like for us also hinged on how much our family and culture valued education and helped us discipline ourselves to do what was required (even in subjects we hated).

Most of us if left to our own devices will choose the easiest thing and do it the easiest way. School also causes us to face the reality that life isn’t all about us as we believed from toddler years onward. (For some that doesn’t change into adulthood.)

A recent podcast nudged me to use that mindset to consider how it connects in my spiritual life. How do I read scripture and pray? Sure, there a lot of methods out there we might try and some may be more helpful to one of us than another but what about the basics?  Can they hone in on what is central in a passage?

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When I sit down to read a passage and the sentences it is comprised of, what is the subject?  The subject is always a noun (sometimes pronoun) that tells me what or who the sentence is about. Looking at that in reading scripture serves not only to clarify the meaning but also reminds me what is key or important. In my prayers, what or who is the subject?  Why even ask that question?

The podcast person triggering all these thoughts (Francis Chan) wanted to remind me that the subject is not me and usually is God and what He is doing, teaching, or encouraging me to understand. That makes clear He is central and I am not. If I keep that in mind that can alter my perception of God and aligns me as the object of what He is doing. Objects are nouns (or pronouns) also but acted upon by whatever verb fits after the subject.

After hearing that it gave me fresh eyes to understand any passage. It punctuated that love, grace, mercy, and everything started with Him and I was the object of that action. How significant that is when I look at how I worship and what I worship. This life is HIS story and He has given me a small part to play in it and that was his plan and pleasure all along. It reminds me when I am telling someone my story that if all my sentences have I as the subject I am missing the truth. 

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It isn’t that you or I don’t matter or do not have value but reminds me who gave us that value when God created us. Social media can get us out of alignment where we become the subject without much thought to consider what we say, how we say it, and how the verbs act on the object (person or thing) reading or hearing it.

If my prayers miss this truth they also miss something and focus only on me rather than Him and those other people and things I need to remember. God makes clear the two basics for all of us: love Him, and love others.

What does my conversation reflect? 

Do I make myself the subject? 

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