Every year I try to encourage the hybrid Bermuda grass to grow in my lawn and to discourage everything else that tries to grow there. In order to discourage crabgrass and its rowdy friends who want to move in on my turf, I have to use various sprays on the yard. When I purchase these sprays and begin mixing them in my sprayer, I always consult the section on “application rates†that is included in the instructions. I have discovered that these “application rates†are only of limited value.
Here is the problem—I have a relatively small yard, and these “application rates†frequently list the amount of the chemical to use per acre. That is very interesting, but it is not very helpful. What I need to know is how much to add per gallon in the sprayer that I will use on my small yard. These guys at the chemical company are experts in their field who have just completed PhD’s in agriculture and chemistry at major universities. They find it difficult to communicate with a guy like me. They are thinking in terms of large farms of many acres of land and how much of the chemical to use per acre. I need someone that will help me apply it to the little corner of the world where I live.
That is not just the problem with spraying; it is one of the problems that we encounter in a lot of areas of life. Before I graduated from college with a minor in social studies, I took one “methods†course that supposedly taught me how to teach social studies. When I went to teach at Florien High School, I used up all of those methods on the first day, and, as far as I could tell, was not having any success in communicating civics or geography to ninth grade boys. I had to work at other methods of applying the subject in ways meaningful to them.
I ran into the same problem in seminary. For eight years, I studied the great theological doctrines and disciplines of the faith. But when I went out and dropped some of those on unsuspecting lay people on Sunday morning, they saw absolutely no connection between what I was saying and the kinds of pressures and decisions that they were facing in the world where they lived.
Jay Kesler said that preaching a sermon that is strong on information but weak on application is like shouting to a drowning man, “SWIM!†The message is true, but it is not helpful. What that guy needs is some practical advice and help to keep him afloat.
A man who was a voracious reader was always making notes in the margins of his books as he read. Beside many of the statements made in the book, the man had written in the margin, “YBH?†A friend asked him what those letters meant. He responded, “They mean, ‘Yes, but how?â€
The Bible is a marvelous book. It not only gives us great truths, but it also tells us how to apply those to our lives. How is it going with you? What is your “application rate?â€
