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Knowing less-nessThursday, April 22, 1999
John 6:45 What better timing for a book that celebrated "unknowing" than when I was 18 and knew everything! Thirty plus years later, I find myself actively "unknowing" something on a daily basis. "I don't know; what do you think?" "Wow!" "I wonder what will happen next." And this is no bad thing, this unraveling of what I think I know about myself, about others, about life's activity within me and without me. It keeps me from thinking I'm in charge of my life. It also reminds me that none of the folks around me are in charge of their lives either, thus freeing me from a great deal of defensiveness and judgment. As long as I am willing to not know it all, God will teach me more. I think he teaches me though, not fact by fact, but experience by experience. Because it's also true that the more I think I know, the less teachable I am. So instead he asks me to get to "know" him, just by being with him, talking and listening, being his kid. And as I watch him I learn more authentic ways to observe, to imagine, to create, to feel, and thereby to "know." Lord, thank you for teaching me and teaching me and teaching me. |
One of the personal attributes I value most in myself and others is being "teachable." I want to remain forever a student of life. In freshman comp at Valparaiso University, Miss Griffin asked us to read The Educated Imagination by Northrup Frye. She wanted us to get better at using our openness and our dis-knowledge to better enjoy and understand the world.