My Turning Points – Page 11 – The Turning Points of Life

ACCENTS

It was the summer of 1973. I was a church youth leader and we were on a trip to Canada. I accompanied fifteen teenagers on the five hour flight from San Diego. Arriving in Toronto we were taken to one of the local churches where we were assigned to families who had volunteered to house our youth and youth leaders.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast, we were taken to a park where we were joined by youth form all over Canada and the USA.

We had just arrived at the park when I noticed a small crowd gathered around a man who was talking. I made my way to the edge of the rapidly building crowd of people.

I imagined he was about thirty years old with short prematurely gray hair. He was relating a fascinating story. Everyone was intently listening as he masterfully told his story with vivid details. To this day, I could not tell you what that story was about, but the life lesson, the turning point, that I experienced in the moments that followed were unforgettable.

As I listened to him speak, I assumed he was from England as he spoke in a distinctive English accent. I found his voice and accent delightful. When he was done I spoke up.

“What an interesting story. I could listen to your delightful accent for endless hours.” I said.

I felt good saying it and meant it as a compliment.

He quickly retorted in his heavy accent: “I don’t SPEAK with and accent! YOU LISTEN WITH ONE!!!”

Wow, was I taken aback! I didn’t expect that response and didn’t know what to say so I just kept quiet. I momentarily stood there in shock, dumbfounded and unable to utter a single word. The man quickly entered into discussions with others while I slinked away to be in solitude.

Alone, I deliberated within myself as to what had just occurred. After I extricated my ego from the shock, I realized that this man had given me a new and ultimately valuable perspective. He revealed a fine point in the art of listening. We all have an accent, a filter that characterizes what we hear and how we process it. It is important that we are aware of our accents and in some cases, alter them by fine tuning them for our own benefitial growth in mastering our listening skills.

The Turning Point

Over the process of years of deliberation and observation, I have grown to appreciate this profound point of listening: We must be aware and conscious that we indeed listen with an accent: the accent of “I want it to be thus…” or “Only if it is my way will I play….” or “that’s not what I expected” . Since then I have learned to relish the unexpected, unplanned for, surprisingly rewarding events that force their way into my day….they are gifts of learning, learning who I am, why I’m here, and where I am going, as well as who you are, why you are here in my life, and where are we going together.

I also learned that sometimes there “accents of ignorance” and that at times, well meaning people can say things that hurt us. When I am aware of the accents of others, I can parry that hurt and quickly forgive, saving myself from unwanted and unnecessary pain.

Solomon’s Recipe

I was a senior in High School and had seven or eight schools that I considered to attend in pursuit of a degree in mechanical engineering. One of them, Bucknell University, I considered because it was the school where my chemistry teacher had earned his chemistry degree. As with all the other schools I seriously considered, I would be alone at Bucknell, as none of my friends from school or church would be there with me.

I applied to my list of choices and waited for the hoped for acceptance letters. I gained acceptance into six schools, but based on a visit to Bucknell one weekend and the counsel of my mentor and uncle, I decided to attend Bucknell University in the small college town of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

When the journey to school was a few days away, I attended a midweek service at our church. The sermon was based on a text from Old Testament scripture, Solomon’s Proverbs. I had always been impressed with Solomon primarily because of his encounter with God as a teenager. The text for the service was Proverbs 4: 5-6. I do not honestly recall how it may have impressed me at the moment I heard it or how the sermon based on it moved me. The future revealed that it somehow got into me. It became a lifelong touchstone that has been a gold mine of wisdom and strength throughout my life to this day.

The text as used in the sermon was from the old King James Version as follows:

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV) 5- Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6- In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

I found this text to be a recipe. A recipe has two components: Ingredients and Instructions. The ingredients define what elements make up the recipe, while the instructions define the sequence and timing of combining them that is critical to achieving a successful end.

With this analogy in mind, I considered analyzing the text. I expanded the words of the text by adding the words found in the Message Bible as follows:

Proverbs 3:5 (MSG) 5-6 Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all.

I found four basic Ingredients:
1. Trust in the Lord my God
2. Don’t insist on understanding
3. Acknowledge God in everything without reservation
4. God will guide you

I then dug into each of them to understand the Instructions as follows:

• Trusting in God I found to be the key to the success of moving forward with this life recipe. This ingredient is critical before the rest can be added. Looking at the many turning points in my life, I was able to see how the hand of God influenced the experiences I had in life. This developed a strong sense of trust in God. Whenever I faced circumstances that seemed beyond me, I trusted God and His will and plan for me. I found that God was worthy of my trust, completely and “from the bottom of my heart.”
• Leaning, relying and insisting on my own understanding I found to be futile. Too much was hidden from me. I could not make wise decisions based on such limited understanding. This was not always easy to do. We tend to think we know it all. However, I came to believe that this ingredient was crucial and I was equipped to embrace it when I trusted in God. Then and only then could I move forward without complete understanding. I also came to realize that eventually, understanding came at the most beneficial moment, even though it was many years later.
• Acknowledging God and His influence and actions in my life presented some difficulty when I faced some very difficult times. When life seemed to be going in directions that caused fear and apprehension I often wondered how God was involved. But I found that when the previous ingredient was engaged, I could acknowledge God in all things. Experience bore out the reality of God’s hand in everything. I was often reminded how Joseph came to see the evil his brothers had done to him when he said to them, what you meant for evil God made into good.
• The directing of my path by God was His way of fulfilling His hope in me. It took a specific listening to Him as He “spoke” in the form of feelings, words and experiences. In most of these, his “speech” was a whisper and not thunder, lightning, fire or earthquake. Here I learned yet another lesson from Solomon. When Solomon was anointed king, he was but a teenager. God asked Him what He should give him. He asked for “a heart with skill to listen, a discerning heart to be a king of righteousness”.

TURNING POINT

The turning point in this experience occurred in the span of a few minutes. A text from the Bible read in a church service. There was no immediate “ah-ha” inspiration. But, as time marched on, the value in the words found ever deeper meaning for me. As the model of a recipe eventually became evident, its value increased even more. I anticipate that further revelations from these simple words will be revealed in experiences yet to come.

COMMENTS

As you read this turning point experience, I hope that you found some personal connection wherein the truth of this scripture also influenced your life. I hope you will share them here so others can be blessed by your experience.

Introducing The Turning Points of Life Blog

Life has been good to me. I have been blessed with an extraordinary number of turning points that had profound changes in the direction of my life. By utilizing this blog to share them with you, I hope to inspire you to see the turning points in your life. I believe that sharing our personal turning points, we can prove to be a blessing to not only someone, but “somemany”.

I welcome you to come along with me and see how seemingly small and insignificant events can turn into extraordinary life experiences.

Sincerely,

Allan E. Musterer