Be Teachable

My son is learning to drive with his learners permit. The thing I’ve noticed (and corrected) most is his responding with “I know.”

We’ve had multiple discussions about how he actually doesn’t know and that’s why he’s learning. I’ve realized what I’m actually working to instill in him is gaining experience to add to his knowledge.

You see, sometimes we have factual information that makes us feel assured in our “knowing.” What we don’t have is practical application to reinforce the how.

Knowledge is something we, as a society, strive to collect. What we don’t always value as much is wisdom. Knowledge is factual. I can read about something, take tests around it and maybe even be deemed proficient.

Wisdom comes from something deeper. Wisdom comes from experiencing something first hand. Trying it, potentially failing, finding exactly where the pivots are needed or what worked to make it successful. Wisdom isn’t something we get from reading books but in the learning that follows as we are teachable.

So often, we “learn” something factually and we feel like we “KNOW.” No one can teach us more about it (and maybe no one needs to). THIS is where we get ourselves into trouble.

I think this title has easily been the theme of my relationship with God for the last few years. I grew up in church, had amazing leaders in my life who loved me and helped build a solid foundation in Christ, I learned all of the dos and don’t dos. Knew my expectations. Followed the rules. Knew its relationship and not religion.

I still rebelled as a young adult. I KNEW what was best for myself. I’m thankful, God kept me even in that season (though I definitely sowed lots of things I had to reap) and I did eventually return to what I’d been raised in.

There have been things that I’ve just KNOWN my whole life. Things I’ve declared publicly and loudly (sometimes that I haven’t even realized how hurtful they’ve been to people I love around me who were battling the things I was declaring a stance on).

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

That’s the thing about wisdom…it changes us. It allows us to see things from multiple viewpoints.

Now, when we throw the Lord into the mix…and gain heavenly wisdom…THAT is when we are starting to align our hearts to the heart of the Father. When we begin to look, think, talk, act more like Jesus.

When we begin to understand things don’t look like what we’ve always thought (or “known”) them to.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

When we get to experience loving other people because their actions don’t define their potential or their identity. God did.

When we get to see that sometimes religion holds us to a standard that God never intended to be the focus.

When we get to understand that we aren’t called to judge other people not because we don’t have the capability to do it and call it love but because loving someone means recognizing I’m just as flawed but pointing to the one who makes me less so.

Loving someone means acknowledging that even Barabbas (who was the worst of the worst) was loved by God. Even Barabbas had the potential to be redeemed, if he so chose.

Loving someone means learning that the Lord does the saving. The Lord does the work in us. The Lord qualifies us and restores our brokenness . It’s our job to love and point to him.

I think about the woman at the well. Jesus had an appointment with her she wasn’t aware of. He came to her, knowing all she had done but yet knowing all she was created for and that she was living less than that. She’d accepted less than she deserved in him. She’d adapted to what society told her she was worthy of now. She disqualified herself because she “knew” it was true. Until she didn’t.

Until she met Jesus, who didn’t define her by what she’d done or cry for “justice” against her. Who told her what made all the difference. That there was a better way. That she could have living water that satisfied the ache she was searching to fill, who made her the first public proclaimer of his coming.

We have to be teachable.

We have to be willing to unlearn what we “know.”

To allow our spiritual eyes to have scales removed and operate in what the Lord is calling us toward.

That’s how we reach a dying world. Not from soapboxes. Not from diatribes. Not from harsh words spoken in righteous justification.

To round out my scripture from Corinthians – the very next verse is:

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

❤️