Today we want you to meet Donna Rodgers. Donna is teaching Beth Moore's When Godly People Do Ungodly Things for our Tuesday Community Bible Study. Many of you that have been to any type of event at Lee Park, or for that matter Sunday Worship, already know Donna, but may not know that you do. Donna is the Director of Lee Park's Drama Ministry in our Worship Department. She writes most of the fabulous scripts for Sunday mornings, as well as the scripts for Bon Noel, Friday Night Live, the Sweetheart Banquet, etc. She is VERY talented. She is married to Wayne, who also serves in the technical arts side of the Worship Department....and he is very good at what he does! They are a wonderful couple to know. They are the proud parents of two young adult daughters. One of their daughters is married and expecting their first grandchild in a couple of months....just ask them about it, and they will beam! Donna is a wonderful writer, director, teacher....and wise friend. We know you will love her too.
Lisa
Before the year 2011 comes to a close in fewer weeks than we can fathom already, I will celebrate my 50th birthday. Wow…that was an out-of-body experience putting down in writing for the first time! The fact is, my age never bothers me. As my husband likes to say, “It beats the alternative!” (Humorously said, of course…especially since as believers, we have something far greater to look forward to beyond this life on earth).
To be honest, my daughters’ aging is much harder for me to come to terms with than my own aging. Those baby and toddler years really are fleeting as so many mothers much farther down the mother path tried to tell me. I should have stressed less and enjoyed more their moments of childhood which at the time seemed unending, but now are as a blink of the eye. I should have joined them more in fun expressions of abandon and laughter during their adolescence instead of sweating the small stuff as I did. Ahh, hindsight…why couldn’t you have been foresight instead?
But that does not mean I do not reflect…take stock…inspect…my heart and life at these milestone years of my own life. I do, indeed, examine where I am, what I’ve accomplished, what my failings were and what I learned from those times. Do you want to know the main thing I have learned after being a 50 year “life student”?
Here it is: I still have SO much to learn!
Even with as much studying, application, and hands-on training I’ve had in life, I am still no expert! I am still merely a student, learning as I go, filled with questions that each new change and turn in life seems to bring to the surface. About the time I think I have something figured out, God reveals just how much more I still have to learn.
Now, please don’t mistake what I am saying. This is a good thing! It’s not about being “smart or dumb”…it’s about desiring to know more and challenging ourselves to care enough to search for the answers. As I apply this to my spiritual life, the more I read the scriptures, the more I become acutely aware that I don’t know near as much as I would like to think I do! But, since I desire to know my Lord and Savior as much as He will allow me, I challenge myself to learn more about Him through reading His Word, praying to Him, and (the thing I have difficulty doing the most) taking the time to be still and listen to Him. I pray I never lose that desire and drive in my spirit.
So, for those who are a few steps ahead of me, I’m sure you are thinking, “Yeah…I already knew that!”, and I thank God for that, and for you. For those just a few paces behind me or right beside me on this walk, keep that desire stirred and that drive active. Chances are, you’ll pass me up! And for those of you just starting this journey of discovery, I hope you listen and learn from those who have gone on before you in God’s wisdom and truth, and be encouraged you are not finding yourself in a lonely isolated situation of learning.
We are all students of our Lord. We must share what we learn, in love, with one another. No matter your age (chronological or spiritual), there is someone in need of hearing what you have learned. Pass it along!
