Not a "How" Question

Do you ever feel like, as you teach -- whether a class or your own children -- or as you participate in a meeting or a discussion, that the conversation can be sidetracked by ...

Just one minute -- I'm sitting outside, with our bird feeders, and there is a bald cardinal on one of them. I wish wish wish I had my camera! His head is missing its feathers and its tuft. He must be molting, but he looks so funny -- all red and bright with a bald gray head.

Speaking of sidetracked, anyway....

I think, sometimes, that we as humans can focus on unimportant details, while letting the real focus of the issue go untouched. Steve tells the story of being in a meeting where the topic of discussion was whether to change the order of worship and Sunday school on Sunday -- a big decision. The conversation, for 10 or 20 minutes, focused on coffee cups and lids -- how to prevent stained on the carpet as people went from fellowship time after church to Sunday School.

Sometimes we do this kind of hat trick to avoid an uncomfortable topic. Sometimes we do it to avoid conflict. Other times we are just easily distracted, but I think this conversation derailer happens often.

I'm teaching a lesson in Sunday school tomorrow using the first chapter of Genesis as the text (Adult Bible Studies). Sunday school lessons are about 35 minutes long, and I don't want to spend half of that time discussing Creationism versus Evolution. For me, that's not the message of Genesis 1.

For me the important lesson is that God created the world. He did it in a loving and perfect manner, declaring his pleasure and approval when he was done. He created man and woman -- the first ones and the ones currently getting dressed in our house. All of us...Let there be....

He created the world, the people in it, and he has never left us alone or stopped loving us or stopped creating. Is

it really important how he did it? Personally, I have no problem with evolution -- I believe it was God's means of creation. I think it's a particularly God like quality of creation to be able to adapt to change -- how cool is that? Wouldn't it be great if we were a little more willing to evolve?

I hope tomorrow that God can steer the lesson more toward what he did and why he did it, and help us to avoid the how questions.

God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! (verse 31)

Images: Deer at Bob Evans, flowers near the parking lot at work.