In Training

In Training

10/22/17

Sometimes it seems monotonous to spend an allotted amount of time in school to study a specific subject and then have to spend another allotted amount of time in training after you receive your job.  It would seem that once the initial training session is over one would be ready for any encounter they might face after schooling, but all of us know that this is just not the case.  There was once a time in our lives that our minds and physical abilities were not limited in such a learning capacity yet it was by a simple one choice method that changed this setting.  Not many of us think about this truth but it is one that we all face today and must deal with in order to accomplish the agenda before us.  God wants our lives to be centered in His Ways so that we may understand the necessity of His presence in our lives so that we may skip some of these added trials that come our way.

Many people in the world do not fully comprehend how my job operates and functions.  I have been in the clinical laboratory environment for approximately 32 years now and I chose this profession because it gives me the opportunity to figure out things about the human body even before the doctor.  I must admit that it is frustrating sometimes that even other medical professionals do not understand the details of my job for a great number of them believe all we do is draw specimens and push instrument buttons then hand out a number to someone else.  While that perception does occur each day of my job-life there are so many other detailed aspects that must be taken into account before those operations and results can be reported out to the providers.  Technology has greatly improved over the decades that I have been working in this wonderful field but even with the improvements humans still have to understand the concepts of each test, method, instrument technique, and test accuracy in order for adequate and proper results to be completed.

I know that the medical technology school curriculum that I attended and learned from back in the 1980s has changed a great deal and the students that graduate today have far greater opportunities where technology is concerned to advance.  However, the concepts and methodology of such tests have not changed and while the technology allows results to be given out quicker, the foundations of such results have not changed at all.  People who choose this field of work do not automatically understand exactly what a spectrophotometer is and what it produces in the area of medical results.  It is this part of the chemistry analyzer that produces such an array of lightwave that allows a sample that I place on the instrument to be read and report out a patient’s glucose level, or sodium level.  I along with every other medical technology student had to learn about how this part of an analyzer worked before we could understand what exactly a glucose and sodium level actually meant to someone else. 

This portion of the instrument is vital to provide the physician with accurate results so that they can provide the necessary treatment for their patients.  If I do not understand that a person cannot live with and survive with a sodium level of 50 but I report it out to a physician as being accurate, my position in this field will be immediately questioned and subject to termination.  When I was a student in college, I had no idea what the normal range for a sodium level was and until I learned about that small object of necessity I did not understand just how important it was to our livelihood.  While some of the information given to me by my professors came easily to me I still had to know about it, read about it and then have my hands on working with the intricacies of the reagents in order for me to know how things worked.  It did not come overnight and even when I graduated my program I still had to face another learning curve setting at my first laboratory.

My point to this example is that I had to be trained and taught about this small element and many others like it before I could report such results to those treating people and in treating it.  I was nervous for the first few years of my career for I understood the importance of my results and that through my results doctors were going to treat sick people.  Even now, when people change jobs they still have a probationary period that teaches them the entire fine details of how that specific laboratory operates, this process too takes time even though we are familiar with the instruments in the new setting. 

Learning is a process that we all must continue and it is important that we keep up with the new technology and procedures that help us provide results adequately and quicker than before while not compromising any result on any level.  As stated above, our minds may pick up on things quite quickly but we still have to at least read about things before we can truly report out our results.  These results do not have to be just in the medical field either, any result that you give to someone else falls into the same category of learning.  I would have loved to have had all of the necessary knowledge for my position to just be programmed in my head when I was born, but it was not for I had to go through some pretty agonizing times to learn such a position, and similar circumstances surrounded your positions as well.

All of us have had jobs presented to us that we were not familiar with to complete.  We approach these opportunities with gross caution and sometimes this caution costs us in some areas and benefits us in others.  But when we look back on these settings, we would not change how we approached the issue for our cautiousness might have slowed us down a bit but the end result was worth it, especially if the one who told us to complete that assignment pushed us as we went along.  None of us know exactly what to do when we are completing any task for the first time.  Even mowing our lawn is not perfectly completed the first time for even this menial task takes time to get everything done correctly.  Yet, through this learning process we strive to do things correctly and to perfection quickly as possible a goal that some of us reach and others do not but when we try to complete our tasks in such a gifted manner our progress is rewarded.

Being human stinks sometimes and the challenges that we face make our lives difficult at times.  But a little challenge in our lives is actually good for it activates our minds and hearts to strive for something better and to accomplish what is set before us.  We are reminded each day through these training sessions that our lives are not perfect but in order for us to be successful at things, we must continue to seek out the truth and make our lives better not only for us but more importantly better for others.  We can only achieve such truth if we refer back to God and how His Ways are what our lives originated in and that we should do our best to achieve such original status again.  The world cannot provide such an offering because the way that it operates is through its defeated ruler which means that God still has in place a method in which we can be whole again.

What is this original way you ask?  We have a glimpse of this truth in Genesis when God created Adam and Eve through the task that He gave them to complete.  We also have plenty of examples in God’s Word of people that God has called into the ministry but argue with God about such job or do not understand what is going on with God’s command, more about these settings later.  But first, Genesis Chapters 1 & 2 give us a specific picture of what it is like for mankind not to have to be trained for God gives Adam a directive which included the upkeep and dressing of the Garden of Eden.  There is no mention of Adam saying he could not do the job or that the task he was given was unfamiliar to him or too hard for him and there was no other explanation from God of how to complete this command to Adam.  There was no other mention of this task until Genesis Chapter 3 arrives and we find out that Adam and Eve have perverted the eternal Law of God to fit into their categorical laziness due to belief in a lie from the enemy. 

We know that if our lives are in complete order with God that the enemy is prone to attack some weak area and through this condition, we have the opportunity to resist his tactics or to accept them into our lives.  Adam and Eve were created in such a perfect manner that they did not need to have any formal training on what to do because they had no limitations set inside them.  After sin entered into their lives was a different story and their lives changed drastically within a certain amount of time.  God had no reason to explain in any detail of what Adam and Eve had to do in order to keep and dress the Garden of Eden.  When God spoke and speaks today, His Words are clear, direct, and precise.  Throughout the Bible have you ever heard God speak in such a manner that does not give a complete and accurate direction?  No!  We have heard humans argue with God about what He has told them to do, but never has God been vague in what He states to His children.

In Genesis 3:7 we have another angle of our lives that is defined through the results of Adam and Eve’s selfish desires to be different and to live under the laws of the world.  As we have discovered, God did not have to explain Himself when detailing the job that He gave to Adam and Eve yet after the entrance of sin into our lives we find that His instructions to Adam and Eve differed greatly in content.  What I find so impressive is that through God’s initial instruction Adam and Eve understood how to complete the challenges that they were going to face due to their acceptance of sin.

Genesis 3:16-19 gives us our new orchestration of life and it is a picture of a setting that we do not even second guess because it has been a part of our lives ever since we can remember.  But for Adam and Eve, it was a new “adventure” that they inherited and one that was unfamiliar to them in every way imaginable.  This process actually begins in Genesis 3:7 when Adam and Eve believe that their appearance has to be altered and thus the first guilt-ridden clothing store is formed.  Instead of unadulterated, unblemished, constant, and pure growth present around them, thorns and weeds would now appear as a token entity of vile competition life survival.  The ground would harden and have to be tilled through a process of breaking ground, a human trait that God still has to do every day in our lives but many of us still refuse Him access to this process.  Every aspect of human life was changed and a new process and way of living had to be learned.  None of this atmosphere was familiar to Adam and Eve and everything that was now in their lives had to be worked for and toiled over for them to gain any type of success.

The ultimate training schedule of our lives comes to a halt when God states that because of our wishes to enter into a sinful atmosphere that we must end our days by returning to the exact same condition that we came.  God does not really enjoy having to work in a cycle or cyclic pattern for when He is “forced” to do this action it means that He has to start over and starting over is not a way of Life for God.  God is eternal and pure in ALL areas which mean that His Way is unidirectional and cannot be turned for any reason.  Yet, in all of His eternal knowledge He has given us the ability to turn our lives around and to start over, going along that unidirectional path that He has provided but in order to do this He must follow in what has already transpired and what has been handed down which means that our lives shall be a continual learning curve as each day moves along.  So instead of a complete and pure path, we must endure bumps and curves along our way.

God would have loved for our lives to have been lived in perfect conditions for eternity, which was His plan for our lives right from our beginning.  But I thank Him every day that He created us in such a manner that allows us to understand our path of life and that He has provided a way for us to be redeemed.  God never makes mistakes and yet He is willing to take back in a being that is so full of dirt, grime, and mistake-ridden cells without question.  Our lives are filled with disappointments and it seems like those disappointments accrue each day but if we turn our hearts back to God and will allow Him to cover us with His Son’s blood, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our wrongdoings.  God did not restart Adam and Eve after they failed but gave them the opportunity to learn what He wanted from them in the beginning.  It was at this time in Genesis Chapter 3 that Adam and Eve understood that while they had to live on the earth that it was not their place to live in the world, for they found out real quick what happens to those who accept the world’s standards and reject God’s.

Church, in no manner, can we obtain and then accept the ways of the world for when we do it throws the act of training into another plain.  There is no way that we can change the way our physical lives can live and die but we have the opportunity to change the training habits of our eternal hearts before they are swept away from God and eternal life.  Every day we see people cry out for help yet throw away God and ignore His Ways of life.  Our enemy has trained our eyes and ears well enough that we can no longer recognize our hearts and when this state is alive in our lives we are doomed to an unrecognizable fate.  There is no escaping the training sessions that we must endure but if we turn our lives back to God He guarantees that His Ways of training will be of perfect origin.  We cannot afford to teach anything else Church, for if we do we are only inhibiting God and allowing Satan to further complicate our existence.

A short note to consider when reading this message from God and that is God provides a clear and distinctive path that will never stray off course.  This world and its plan for your life cannot provide such a direction but can only offer one that will be confusing and thorny at best.  There is no question that the world is its own entity and it will provide such opportunities but when we are grounded in the Word of God the direction that one walks is so much simpler and easier.  God never speaks with a forked tongue or leads in a way that would cause us doubt, but our hearts must be focused on Him and His Ways at all times, for when our eyes and ears stray our hearts cannot understand the direction of our walk thus providing obstacles that will force us to replay Genesis 3:7 and live in the shadow of Luke 7:3-5. 

It is the amount of training and the quality of training that each of us has in front of us and it is strictly our choice which one to incorporate.  Just as the choice that Adam and Eve had back in the Garden of Eden the implications of such choice is still relevant in our lives today.  God is beckoning His children to listen to His Words and to live under His Ways for it is His Way that brings us total freedom from the muck, mire, dirt, thorns, and weeds of life.  The world cannot provide this type of perfect living conditions with an easy access to happiness.  Look around you, look and see what all has occurred in our world over the past few days and one will know that it cannot provide any peace or stability.  I guess the next logical question for us to ponder is this: what are we in training for now and more importantly which (k)Kingdom are we training to participate and live within?  

DLB