Day Twenty Eight: Understanding People

One thing that I love about families is the inherited traits we receive while being a part of them. We could go into the whole nature vs. nurture thing but the fact is that we've got them. Family traits.... In the LaMore family, there are specific things that qualify you as being a member of the family. Some examples include the love of ice cream, good stewardship (financial, time, hospitality, etc), and at least an ounce of nerdiness in something. However, the biggest qualifier of being a LaMore is the love of books. My grandparents walls are literally lined with bookcases in every room and magazines/newspapers are readily available in multiple rooms. All four of the kids are the same way. We all knew that Gregg was officially initiated into the family when Grandpa handed him a small stack of books he thought Gregg would like. I'm not exaggerating at all. When there are three Barnes and Nobel gift cards up for grabs at the Christmas gift card swap and they are being fought over, you know you are in a reading family. I've inherited that gene too. I have a good stack of books on my shelf that needs to be read and I still buy more.

This afternoon, I was reading in my big red chair (my favorite place to sit) and I looked over at the arm of it. Stacked beside me were another three books that I am currently reading through besides the one in my hands. FOUR books at one time! Oh dear..... I have officially turned into my grandparents. In the brief moments that followed, I had an ah-ha (surprise) moment. Of the four that I am reading, I would recommend three of them to others. One of them, I would recommend to everyone. I am so excited about them that I can't wait to share them! I suddenly understand my Grandpa so much better. Every time he hands me a book, I tend to groan a little but what I have missed for all of these years is the excitement he had for that work. With the giving of the book, he tells you about all it. When you give it back, he wants to know all about what you thought about it. He wants to share that excitement. I'm such a doofus! I've missed sharing that joy for years! And now I'm the one trying to push it on those around me. I'm definitely my grandfather's granddaughter! Just a little glimpse into understanding him better.

So the book that I mentioned earlier - plug time. I started reading Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas today. I've had it for a while but I felt an urgency to read it today. In a nutshell, it is a book about the nine ways that different people experience worship and express love to God. Thomas states that the purpose of the book is to help us better understand how we worship. While I am looking forward to that part of it, I am reading it for a completely different reason. I'm really interested to see exactly how people do experience God - their pathways to worship. I have grown to believe that many differences that church bodies struggle with are not so much about doctrinal difference but differences of expression. These are things like expressive worship verses ritual worship, contemplating verses serving, etc. My goal in reading this book is to be able to look at a brother or sister and understand where they are coming from. I may not understand why they want to do what they do in worship. Instead of getting frustrated with them, I hope to be able to hear their heart crying out to love God in the way they were made to worship. I want to understand people better. To see their hearts. If anyone is interested, I'll tell more about the different pathways when I finish the book. All I've read so far is the first part and, surprise, I've already learned a lot - surprise!! I can see where I've messed up or dropped the ball in various relationships because I didn't understand someone's pathway.

I have so much to learn.....