My brain hurts...
My brain hurts. I don't have a headache but my brain hurts. It happens to all of us at times when we have an informational overload. You know the feeling you get when you have tried to soak up to much knowledge from to many areas in a short time. Your brain starts screaming for you to stop so it can finish sorting through all the information and file it in the right areas. That is where I am at. I need to let my brain sort and file for a few days. After all a sponge can only hold so much water.
Here is what caused my sponge, I mean my brain, to fill to capacity. I have been reading the book, "The Beauty of Intolerance" by Josh and Sean McDowell. It is one of those books you read and sermons begin to flow so lots of note taking there. I went to the "Leading Change in the Church" conference this week. It included four breakout sessions, a Q & A period and two sessions with the key note speaker, Thom S. Rainer. Rainer is one of my favorite authors and it was a pleasant surprise to find out he was an even better speaker. I walked away from the day with over twelve pages of notes (I think that may be more than I took all of high school) and loads of information I am still
sorting through. I rode to the conference with two pastors I highly respect and they were telling me about a new program they had started at their church and the results they were having. I took all kinds of mental notes on that and have spent time researching that program this week. For the last couple of weeks I have been researching a topic we discussed in our Wednesday Night Bible Study and it alone was giving me brain cramps. In my free time at home I am going through my notes and printed material form the 2016 Spartan Classic as I prepare to begin the work on the 2017 Spartan Classic. The Spartan Classic is a band competition hosted by South Caldwell and will be held on October 14th if you are interested in attending or helping sponsor it please message me. (Yes, I know that was a shame less plug.) So my brain has been trying to absorb all of that and put it into the proper place. My brain sent me a memo reminding me that a sponge can only hold so much water. It is true.
If you take a dry sponge, place it in the sink under the faucet, and turn the water on a small stream you will see it is true. If you do the stream slow enough you can actually watch the sponge rise as it collects the water. Very little if any water will leave the sponge at first. As the sponge starts to reach it's capacity more water will begin to seep out of the sponge. Once the sponge has reached it's capacity the same amount of water going into the sponge will go out of the sponge. It is full. It doesn't matter how slow or how fast the water stream is the sponge cannot hold anymore water. It needs to release some water before it can hold more.
There are several ways to make a sponge release water. If you leave it still long enough the water will start to dry up inside the sponge. Scientists, who have nothing better to do I guess, have studied sponges and found that allowing a full sponge to dry out is a great way for bacteria to build up in the sponge. This bacteria makes the sponge get hard and no longer able to hold water. You can pick up a sponge and watch the water drip out of it. Not all the water drips out though. That means the rest must dry up and that is an invitation for bacteria to come in. The most effective way to dry a sponge is to use it. You know you wash your frying pan after frying some delicious bacon with a sponge. You may wash your car with a sponge or even use one in the shower. As you use it you squeeze it to get the soapy water out of it so it can be used to wash what ever you are washing. When you finish your sponge is almost dry. How do you keep the bacteria from coming? You keep using the sponge.
Now let's look at our brains and all the information God gives us through our Bible study, prayer, Sunday School lessons, listening to preaching, songs and other places. At some point we have all our brain can handle. What we going to do with all that knowledge? Use it! We are to apply it to our lives
and use it that is why God gave it to us. We can just sit there to allow it to go away and allow Satan to move his bacteria in or we could let it drip out in a few conversations. That isn't what God called us to do. James 1:22 tells us to be a doer of the word not just a hearer of the word.
So over the next couple of weeks I will be a doer of the words I have been storing in my brain. I will prepare the sermons from the book God has given me. God has given me a vision of how to use the information I gained from the conference. I will look at the program those pastors spoke about to see if could be applied to my church. I have already shared the information I gained researching the topic for Wednesday night. The process of planning and carrying out the Spartan Classic will begin next month. So what will you do with the words God has been giving you?
Parting Thought: I found out I could join a prison choir. It's a choir that is behind a few bars and always looking for the right key.
Here is what caused my sponge, I mean my brain, to fill to capacity. I have been reading the book, "The Beauty of Intolerance" by Josh and Sean McDowell. It is one of those books you read and sermons begin to flow so lots of note taking there. I went to the "Leading Change in the Church" conference this week. It included four breakout sessions, a Q & A period and two sessions with the key note speaker, Thom S. Rainer. Rainer is one of my favorite authors and it was a pleasant surprise to find out he was an even better speaker. I walked away from the day with over twelve pages of notes (I think that may be more than I took all of high school) and loads of information I am still
If you take a dry sponge, place it in the sink under the faucet, and turn the water on a small stream you will see it is true. If you do the stream slow enough you can actually watch the sponge rise as it collects the water. Very little if any water will leave the sponge at first. As the sponge starts to reach it's capacity more water will begin to seep out of the sponge. Once the sponge has reached it's capacity the same amount of water going into the sponge will go out of the sponge. It is full. It doesn't matter how slow or how fast the water stream is the sponge cannot hold anymore water. It needs to release some water before it can hold more.
There are several ways to make a sponge release water. If you leave it still long enough the water will start to dry up inside the sponge. Scientists, who have nothing better to do I guess, have studied sponges and found that allowing a full sponge to dry out is a great way for bacteria to build up in the sponge. This bacteria makes the sponge get hard and no longer able to hold water. You can pick up a sponge and watch the water drip out of it. Not all the water drips out though. That means the rest must dry up and that is an invitation for bacteria to come in. The most effective way to dry a sponge is to use it. You know you wash your frying pan after frying some delicious bacon with a sponge. You may wash your car with a sponge or even use one in the shower. As you use it you squeeze it to get the soapy water out of it so it can be used to wash what ever you are washing. When you finish your sponge is almost dry. How do you keep the bacteria from coming? You keep using the sponge.
Now let's look at our brains and all the information God gives us through our Bible study, prayer, Sunday School lessons, listening to preaching, songs and other places. At some point we have all our brain can handle. What we going to do with all that knowledge? Use it! We are to apply it to our lives
So over the next couple of weeks I will be a doer of the words I have been storing in my brain. I will prepare the sermons from the book God has given me. God has given me a vision of how to use the information I gained from the conference. I will look at the program those pastors spoke about to see if could be applied to my church. I have already shared the information I gained researching the topic for Wednesday night. The process of planning and carrying out the Spartan Classic will begin next month. So what will you do with the words God has been giving you?
Parting Thought: I found out I could join a prison choir. It's a choir that is behind a few bars and always looking for the right key.
I'm afraid I am not one to read a whole lot. Hence, my sponge is not over flowing, but I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for sharing your water. I guess what I am trying to say is that in order to share any water I first have to be willing to let the water in.
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