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| Priscilla Du Preez @priscilladupreez |
We study to learn. Period. Don't study to control, influence or lord it over anyone. Studying to quietly learn is wisdom, more so if your quiet learning helps people. People are helped more by wise people who do their work quietly and smartly. Wise, influential people are those who inspire other people to be like them. I say "inspire" because it's when people see something in you and get attracted, rather than you forcing something on them. The wise study to be better, not prove themselves better than others. The transformation they undergo stimulates or motivates people to have the same experience and result.
Quiet wisdom to avail of God's miracles. Click here.
Thus, the term Christ-likeness, for instance. It's not something forced on the believer. Jesus' life and character are presented in Scriptures and many are inspired to be like him. In his time, people came to him to be taught. They came on their own volition because they were attracted. "That life was the light of men." The 12 disciples were handpicked, yes, but they were left to themselves to decide, nonetheless. And they followed him because they were inspired, not obligated. Later, Peter reflected what the rest must've felt when he said, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
Teaching should thus be based on this premise alone--inspiring students through your example. You don't require or demand. You don't coerce or set demerits for poor performance. Wisdom is not enforced by threats of low grades in report cards or rewards for good performance, like recognition laurels on graduation day. Those who resort to these things have a dire lack of wisdom. It only feeds the idea that those who showoff or compete (or are noisy) are the best. Nothing can be more deceiving.
I respect medical doctors. I consult them. But lately I found that they've barely scratched the surface of what really goes on in the human body. I appreciate doctors who admit they don't know everything about their field and continue to study and research, not so they can pretend more to know everything, but to improve their capacity to help others. The same with other professionals. I know a man who's considered by other people to be knowledgeable in a lot of matters but he himself admits that he knows so little and never pretends he does when he really doesn't. Such individuals have clean hearts.
I've met doctors who didn't know what was wrong with their patients and merely drew conclusions from what they got from their textbooks. One ER doctor told me I had congestive heart failure when I went to the ER once for a bloated tummy. She immediately recommended tests for this purpose--tests that were so expensive. I said I'd just go to my regular heart specialist to confirm (it was an emergency so I had no choice but to be rushed to the ER and had her see me). She looked slighted and gave me scary scenarios of what may happen if I didn't take her advice. She sounded so, so, so sure of what she was saying and talked down to me like I were an idiot.
So I went to my real, specialist heart doctor who giggled and quietly said I was so far from having CHF or "congestive heart failure." He double-checked me and giggled some more. See? Some folks think they know everything just because they studied and learned something. They lecture you about things they think they're an expert of and insist that what they say is as final as bible truth. My heart specialist calmed me down, saying with his quiet confidence how he was sure nothing was wrong with my heart. Real wisdom makes you quiet.
I'm so pissed off by those who studied theology and think they alone can interpret anything in Scriptures. Their narrow-mindedness makes them think God's Word cannot be interpreted in any other way except by their theology--or worse, their hermeneutics. In the small, tiny, minuscule world they move about that may be the rule. But they can't see how their world is but a tiny dot in the massive universe of ideas. There are other much larger worlds out there that better interpret Scriptures--like the supernatural dimensions of the Holy Spirit where no human thinking or ways exist. Like the third-heaven revelations of God which Paul the apostle once saw.
Like the supernatural visions Ezekiel, the prophet, had when God took him in spirit from Babylon to Jerusalem to get a clear meaning of what God meant by his jealousy against his people.
True wisdom makes you understand your smallness in all God's creation and how you always have a wide room for improvement--that the little you know (no matter your laurels in this world) makes you unworthy to intrusively correct or lecture your fellow, unless they ask you to because you have inspired them so much without meaning to. Or if you're a professor and they decide to enroll in your subject, that too is an exception.
If they don't ask for your opinion, keep mum. All of us are entitled to our opinions and interpretations. The "fact" you think you know is really just a guess in this world of unknowns--and your guess is just as good as anyone's. If you think the other guy is wrong and you're correct, don't you have the imagination to see that the opposite could also be true? People thought the Wright brothers were dead wrong to think they could fly in the air.
Only God has the monopoly of rightness and correctness. Even if you believe your knowledge comes straight supernaturally from God, never announce and assume you're more right than others. Don't go out intruding in their territory, correcting people and lecturing them about what you know--unless they ask you to. This is so plain and yet lots of smart Alecks don't get it and make--in the world's lingo--an asshole of themselves.
I often think I'm right and others are wrong, but I keep it to myself. If I think a guy is wrong about his ideas, I just listen to him--or else ignore him. No point in correcting or lecturing him if he's convinced of his ideas. And if you don't know anything about something, don't pretend. Admit your ignorance. I do it lots of times. Speak when you're asked to, and especially if they beg you to.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. [Romans 14.22]So remember, true wisdom makes you quiet. So just relax and don't think you have to always assert yourself, lecture on or correct people, or prove yourself.
He who restrains his words has knowledge, And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. [Proverbs 17.27]
