Do you see your past as a burden to carry around? The longer you live the longer your history. Do you feel the weight of it as a hindrance to moving forward in life? It is true that you are shaped by the life you have lived so far. You may view this as a positive or a negative. If you like the place that this has brought you then rejoice and be grateful. If not, then consider my remark during the atonement that I make all things new. Your past doesn’t have to be the determiner of your future. In my economy of grace you can lay down the burden of your past and move forward into a bright transformed future. 

Paul said he knew how to be abased and how to abound. Do you? Most people have a strong preference for abounding, and assume that they would do it easily and well, and that being abased is a temporary condition to endure. But my word cautions the wealthy not to trust in riches when they increase and says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Paul was saying that the Kingdom of God was the central and primary concern, and that he could maintain his focus there whether he was rich or poor. Can you? 

Is it the job of a teacher to present facts? Imparting information is one aspect of teaching, but only one. Students should be on a journey of learning and discovery, but shouldn’t this be true of everyone, including teachers? They should be in the process of learning themselves. Consider the teachers from your own experience that you enjoyed the most. Would they be better described as guides on the path of learning, even as they walk it themselves? You may not hold the title of teacher yourself, but you can still function as one even if you don’t know everything. Describe your own path into the mystery of the faith to those who will hear you. 

You understand the concept of my presence and this is available to you whenever you seek it even though you can’t see me. Do you know that you have a presence yourself? Everyone does. It is expressed in various degrees as you have already seen. For you know people whose mind is elsewhere, who are absent, even though you are in front of them face to face. You also know people who are full of themselves and their presence is overpowering and wearisome. Don’t you appreciate those people who are fully present to you in a gracious way, who give you their full attention and involvement? They appreciate the same quality in you, but this isn’t something that comes automatically. Seek me and learn of me to be single-minded and have the mind of Christ.