Hands On!

Something I've been mulling over lately is the value of "hands on" experience.  When I was in training to be a journeyman mechanical insulator, my classes were broken into two basic parts:  book work and hands on.  We spent a good deal of time learning about hydronic systems, four and three pipe systems, chillers, boilers, and identifying what pipes or surfaces required insulation.  A bit dry at times, but valuable information.  But hitting the books did nothing to develop the eye, hands, or gain any practical experience of actually doing the work.  Hands on training was the primary part of our training so we could familiarise ourselves with layouts, cutting styrene, metal jacketing, fiberglass cloth, and rubber.  The high quality our teachers required was obtainable only after much practice, repetition, and the development of learned skills.

In the church today, I think the tendency is to have things backwards.  In my view, there is a real possibility we focus primarily on the book work and put little emphasis on the "hands on" portion of our faith.  Can you imagine a hairstylist who spent 95% of time in beauty school learning about the history of scissors and brushes, the anatomy of hair follicles, the chemical properties of various hair products, studying the evolution of hair styles through the centuries, and and only spent 5% of their time in school actually cutting, curling, dyeing, and styling hair?  But this is what we can do with our many Bible studies, home groups, Sunday Schools, prayer meetings, and discipleship classes.  Don't get me wrong - fellowship, prayer, and study of God's Word is vital to our spiritual health and growth.  The point is, how often are you actually getting your hands dirty, learning through experience to apply your knowledge in real life situations?  Unless our faith includes a lot of hands on, we have the Christian skills of a hairdresser who really hasn't styled much hair ever!

There was no person more hands on than Christ.  He invested wisdom and time with His disciples, taught the Word in the synagogue, and He laid hands on the sick and healed them.  He fed the hungry, and discussed spiritual truth with unbelievers.  Jesus went about His Father's business, which involved Him traveling around and doing good.  He had a message to share with the world, and He compassionately shared it with all who would hear.  How important it is that we provide a Christ-like example for our spouse and children, our friends and co-labourers in Christ!  Unless our kids are given hands on experience in following Christ and are taught to live skillfully as we invest ourselves in them individually, how will they practically know what following Jesus looks like?  We can't be content to feed them information alone.

Once we are washed from our sin, our call is to engage in the work of the ministry.  So let's get our hands dirty, people!