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 at this picture...I even have a carpenter pencil behind my ear...

My great-grandfather was a carpenter and my grandfather also, as well as a stone mason, so somewhere in my genes I will have what I need for the job...

I've not only been building, but it has been very meditative work..."Learning by doing", that has been my motto...

While I'm 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... some may even think it's rubbish, especially "professionals", but I don't care...

When we don't put our value only in the results, but in the process, nothing is a waste of time... let us say my work ends up being rubbish, that doesn't mean I am rubbish...even if others may point that out... my work may be, but it also means I´ve tried, and I´ve learned from my mistakes...

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, we don't have to fear...and we know we'll not lose 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 as you might have noticed)
I started to think about the way Jesus trained his disciples... he didn't set up a Bible school or seminary (don't misinterpret me, I'm not against it), actually, they didn't even had a "Bible"... they possibly knew some of the jewish scrolls of the Torah, most likely by oral transmission... Jesus didn't organize a discipleship camp... All he did was choose some young men, mostly peasants, from a despised region called Galilee, who were not educated or very religious... Jesus called them to follow Him (even though he made clear that he had no place to lay his head, so probably he had no home, even though it seems like he might have had a house in Capernaum where he would pass by every now and then)... 

They walked together for a while...they must have learned a lot simply by observing... Jesus gave them little tasks, and the disciples were promptly obeying... They helped serve and feed a few thousands of people with only a few fish and bread... Then he simply sent them out to do the same they saw him doing, like speaking about the Kingdom of God and how to live different lives than what the Romans wanted to impose, healing those who were sick and casting out demons...they didn't make 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 : he would send them out in pairs so they could have their own experience and also have a witness and companion on the road... Then he would give them some more 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 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 from learning... And wisdom comes by learning, not simply by knowing...

Does this 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 visited 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 God... not expecting any recognition, nor charging for it or wanting to be noticed... she's not a rich wealthy lady either, but she gives with sacrifice, because she loves...

O.K, this is going a bit too far already...  I just wanted to share some random thoughts...

Be peaceful 
Always