Amateur vs Professional

I have spent the ENTIRE day designing just the front page for the new college website. It took that long because I am having to teach myself Dreamweaver as I go, and that's no easy task. I tried a tutorial, but it would have meant first creating a tutorial website, and it didn't look a thing like what I wanted for the college one - nor did it make much sense.

Now if the college had seen fit to send me on a Dreamweaver course, it would have been mightily helpful. I would have known why my tables insisted on resizing differently every time I viewed them - with no pottering on my part. I would have understood how tags and styles and objects work, what navigation bar error messages are actually trying to tell me. I would have known how to do a lot of things that I don't.

Since being handed the website all I've done is fiddle with what the previous guy did - and he didn't know what he was doing either! I think I could be pretty good at Dreamweaver if I just had a little more knowledge, and especially if I had more time to learn.

It's a bit like my spiritual life. Time is short, so I do what I think I can in the time I think I have - and thus scratch only the surface. I could do with more learning time, more training/mentoring for where I go wrong. Instead I use up a lot of time trying this and that, trial and error until I find something that works.

But unlike web design, I don't think one can be either an amateur or professional Christ-follower. Perhaps it really is best sometimes not to be trained too professionally in the art of following - but rather to have to hold on tight to the One who leads and go where He goes, even if you have no clue where you're headed.