learning
I woke up twice this morning. Actually it was three times. Once was an unscheduled response to a bottle of IZZE just before I went to bed. Once was to the alarm and the last was a frantic jump when I realized I had drifted off again after the previous. Late again… I hate being late. At least I used to hate being late. I’m not all that bothered by it as much anymore. I’m a bit more relaxed about it. I’m just a little more flexible as I get older. Learning is not an option for me. I’m trying to go against the traditional tide of becoming more set in my ways. It’s a mental exercise that I have tried to employ at the same time that I’m using the gym thing in a futile attempt at physical rejuvenation. I realize that I’m swimming upstream, but it feels worthwhile.
In working with my community o’ faith, I have come to value most highly the learners in the group. Those who don’t know everything are the ones I choose to spend the most time around. It doesn’t really matter what current state they are in. Some are very successful, some are marginal, and some just barely are at all. If they are learners, then I want to spend time with them. They exude an energy that is life bringing. I want to be one of them, learners I mean. It’s the ones that know it all that scare me.
I think this has much to do with my fascination with God. There is so much to know and at the end of the day, so much still unknown. I find His Book alive every time I open it, even when I accidentally turn to those pages dealing with old Hebrew mold and mildew. I guess you had to be there. I wasn’t really sure of a modern day application for those passages until I spent a couple of weeks in New Orleans cleaning out the remnants of The Hurricane. It’s everywhere, knowledge I mean, if you just choose to look in the right source.
There was a time, during my first journey through college, that I thought that I could know everything there was to know about just about anything that mattered. That delusion ended with first semesters grades. I remember vividly seeing posters for different guest lecturers scattered around campus dealing with nearly every life mystery imaginable and a few made up ones along the way. I imagined myself sitting though each one and just soaking it all in. One day I would be brilliant. I didn’t even attend one. In fact most of my sessions were spent with Captain Morgan and his best friend Jack. Needless to say, I think that I actually left that era of learning having lost ground in the brain cell department. I had a real job and a real career and all that goes with the survival of the university experience, but not the wisdom I had assumed I would stumble upon. Many people I’ve encountered through the years seem to have settled for that. I did not find wisdom, but fortunately wisdom found me.
My second venture into the college environment was much more fruitful. This maybe because it involved studying something of such infinite depth that no matter how long I’ve spent doing it I’m still scratching the surface and looking for more. I came away with much more than a career. I came away with a quest and a journey and a purpose. I came away with a continual hunger for more.
Those who I most deeply respect are those who come again and again to the wellspring found in “The Book of Books”. They are life long seekers. They see things I don’t see and have thoughts that I don’t think. They are life giving. They are also not unique. By that I mean, they are not blessed with anything more than any of the rest of us are entitled to have. They don’t have greater education. They don’t have better jobs or better families or better cars, or even cars at all. All they have is all that I want. They have open minds and a desire to fill them with life according to The Book.
In working with my community o’ faith, I have come to value most highly the learners in the group. Those who don’t know everything are the ones I choose to spend the most time around. It doesn’t really matter what current state they are in. Some are very successful, some are marginal, and some just barely are at all. If they are learners, then I want to spend time with them. They exude an energy that is life bringing. I want to be one of them, learners I mean. It’s the ones that know it all that scare me.
I think this has much to do with my fascination with God. There is so much to know and at the end of the day, so much still unknown. I find His Book alive every time I open it, even when I accidentally turn to those pages dealing with old Hebrew mold and mildew. I guess you had to be there. I wasn’t really sure of a modern day application for those passages until I spent a couple of weeks in New Orleans cleaning out the remnants of The Hurricane. It’s everywhere, knowledge I mean, if you just choose to look in the right source.
There was a time, during my first journey through college, that I thought that I could know everything there was to know about just about anything that mattered. That delusion ended with first semesters grades. I remember vividly seeing posters for different guest lecturers scattered around campus dealing with nearly every life mystery imaginable and a few made up ones along the way. I imagined myself sitting though each one and just soaking it all in. One day I would be brilliant. I didn’t even attend one. In fact most of my sessions were spent with Captain Morgan and his best friend Jack. Needless to say, I think that I actually left that era of learning having lost ground in the brain cell department. I had a real job and a real career and all that goes with the survival of the university experience, but not the wisdom I had assumed I would stumble upon. Many people I’ve encountered through the years seem to have settled for that. I did not find wisdom, but fortunately wisdom found me.
My second venture into the college environment was much more fruitful. This maybe because it involved studying something of such infinite depth that no matter how long I’ve spent doing it I’m still scratching the surface and looking for more. I came away with much more than a career. I came away with a quest and a journey and a purpose. I came away with a continual hunger for more.
Those who I most deeply respect are those who come again and again to the wellspring found in “The Book of Books”. They are life long seekers. They see things I don’t see and have thoughts that I don’t think. They are life giving. They are also not unique. By that I mean, they are not blessed with anything more than any of the rest of us are entitled to have. They don’t have greater education. They don’t have better jobs or better families or better cars, or even cars at all. All they have is all that I want. They have open minds and a desire to fill them with life according to The Book.
Comments
Shawn