LeArNinG bY dOiNg...

Check out the Mount of Oaks blog and find out what I've been up to this week...
I love carpentry...notice my carpenter look on this picture...I even have a carpenter pencil behind my ear...pink :-), eh, eh...
I've not been only building, but it has been a very meditative work..."Learning by doing", that has been the subject ...

So, while I'm up building the roof, some interesting thoughts come to my mind...
It is amazing what we can learn by doing...
when we don't have the fear of trying...fear of failing...
when we don't have the fear of what others may think about our work (they may even think it's rubbish, specially "professionals", but I don't care)...
When we don't put our value in the result our work may have... (let us say my work end up being rubbish...that doesn't mean I am rubbish...even if others may point that)...

Fear is a very destructive thing actually...and we live in a society of fear these days... Isn't fear the opposite of Love...of hope... of faith... What shall we fear then ?!

when we appreciate the learning process more than the successful results (or unsuccessful) we may have...then we don't have to fear...and we know we'll not loose anything...we'll only gain..if nothing else, we'll gain experience...

All that and more made me think about Jesus (every little thing can make me think about Jesus :-) ...)...
I started to think about the way Jesus trained His disciples... he didn't set up a Bible school (don't misinterpret me, I'm not against it), actually they didn't even had a Bible...Jesus didn't set up a discipleship camp... All He did was choosing a bunch of guys who were not religious at all, called them to follow Him (even though he made clear that He had no place to lay his head)...and they walked together for a while...they must have learned a lot simply by observing...Then Jesus gave them little tasks (and the disciples were submissive), like feeding few thousands of people... Then he simply send them out to do the same they saw him doing...they didn't made written tests nor exams... they simply went...and you know what?!! They came back all excited with the things they learned... Often Jesus would do like that : sent them out so they could have their own experience, Then give them some teaching about it...
they would probably fail sometimes, or get frustrated, but Jesus was more concerned with the learning process in their own individual lives (things like self-initiative), then with the results in themselves...
In the end I bet the disciples learned much more in those 3 years (walking many kilometers by foot, not really knowing where they would sleep or what they would eat), then what we may learn with many books, courses, theories and lots of knowledge...

Studying is good ( I love it), but if we don't practice it in our lives, do we really learn ?! Having knowledge is different than learning... And wisdom comes by learning, not simply by knowing...

Does this all make any sense ?! well, for me it does, and I'm trying to put it into practice :-)... I'm learning this while making a roof, so, it's not only in "spiritual activities" that we learn spiritual things...actually I was having this conversation with a guy who came to visit these days... we fail when we start separating "spiritual" things from the "non-spiritual" ones... WE ARE SPIRITUAL, so everything we do is spiritual... whether I'm washing dishes or studying the Bible, I'm the same spiritual person... In fact, I notice most of the things in my character (good or bad) in small things like cleaning toilets, weeding the garden, cleaning other people's houses, feeding my animals, etc... maybe like Jesus washing his disciples feet... he was giving an example to follow, taking the least of works to serve others, and doing it with all his heart, filled with Love...
Many go to church meetings and get impressed with the preacher's sermon... this sunday at mass I was impressed with the lady who arranged the flowers everywhere in the building... I know her, and I know she does it for the Lord... not expecting any recognition, not charging for it, not wanting to be noticed... she's not a rich wealthy lady neither, but she gives with sacrifice, because she loves...

O.K, this is going a bit too far already :-)... Just wanted to share some random thoughts... You might have more about it :-)

Be peaceful :-)
ALWAYS