I'm okay with revisitation.

If I had to pin down a point of tremendous spiritual growth in my life, those two weeks I spent at Camp Berea in 2006 instantly come to mind. During the first week, our training week, Dwight Knight [no jokes, folks, that was his name] was speaking to the main camp and our group sat in on some of his sessions. I was a little underwhelmed; I'd seen him speak many times before and I was a little weary of the camp sermon routine. But by the end of that first week, not only was I humbled in my indifference to his [poignant] messages, but I was also reminded of a simple reality . . .

Whenever someone teaches Scripture, it applies to you.

It doesn't matter how many times you've heard the lessons - you'll need to keep learning it. It doesn't matter how many times you've heard the lessons - you'll need to keep hearing them. It is utter folly and arrogance to sit back in your plastic folding chair and zone out while God's word is being taught. There is always something that applies to you, no matter how many times it's been taught to you. Don't set something aside merely because you've heard it a thousand times. Never write something off as "learned."

The irony here is that I'm learning this same lesson over again. I was reminded of this Camp Berea experience because I've been so frustrated lately, confused to a point of not being able to articulate exactly what I think my problem is . . . but now, I think I've been frustrated because I haven't had any "new revelations" about God and Scripture and my walk with Him. I haven't been willing to revisit the lessons that were new the first time around. I think God's been trying to show me some amazing things, but I keep brushing them off because they bear a label of "this I already know." 

But between the mention in passing to the simple things on Stuff Christians Like, and the depressed feeling I got when I realized how much I was missing in not doing devotions with some sort of guide, to the renewed interest in the theological questions I've been asking off and on these past few weeks, I think I'm starting to see what my problem is, by the grace of God. I had so many wonderful conversations this past week in New Hampshire with my friends, many revisiting things I've thought lots about, and it wasn't that I saw these things like new in hashing through them again, but rather I was reminded why they were so important in the first place. I need some reminding.