In Praise of Life-Long Learning by Don Huntington I Was Just Thinking www.donwriteforyou.com 925-634-7927

Read more articles by Don Huntington

I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, those who make it or those who don’t. I divide the world into learners and non-learners. (Benjamin Barber)...

Nobody who is confident about their grasp of what’s going on in the world or satisfied with the quality of their own knowledge and wisdom can fully engage in life or put their whole self into relationships with other people.
I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the extent of my ignorance. My little store of wisdom and knowledge seem diminutive and unimportant, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. I’m a slow learner when it comes to the important things having to do with integrity and holiness — or when learning anything else, for that matter.
The fact is that I’m in good company, it seems, in feeling completely humbled by my ignorance. Plato referred to Socrates as “an idol, a master figure…, a Saint,” and “a prophet.” About himself, Socrates reportedly made the comment, “The Delphic oracle said I was the wisest of all the Greeks.” However, Socrates then added, “It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.”
When I was 13 I knew everything there was to know because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And how could I? After graduating from high school I spent 12 years in higher education. I earned a baccalaureate degree, two masters degrees in biblical studies, plus a doctorate. I educated myself far beyond the limits of my intelligence.
But I’m a life-long learner. I probably go to Wikipedia for something or other five times a day. So I now know things that I didn’t know last week at this time. I’m not unusual; an increasing number of adults in our complex civilization find acts of learning to be essential to their professional lives.
But I have to admit very frankly that while my knowledge only grows by addition, my awareness of the extent of my ignorance grows by multiplication. As a result, I find myself in the appalling condition of finding the little island of the things I know for sure becoming increasingly less significant in the unbounded ocean of those things that I now know I know nothing about. So I’m in the uncomfortable position of continually growing more educated on an absolute basis, but continuously more ignorant on a relative basis.
The realization of my ignorance is nothing more than a frank acknowledgement of the incomprehensible nature of the world about me — both in its physical and in its spiritual manifestations. Whenever I meet anyone who thinks they know a lot, I realize that they really do have a lot to learn.
Sometimes I think it is crazy how little I really learn about God’s ways and how poorly I actually practice His presence. However, the incomparable Anne Lamott wrote words that speak to my heart:
Jesus’ heart was not hardened against crazy people, or we would all be doomed. He was not embarrassed by craziness. He just said, “Yeah, well, me too,” then he took care of you anyway.
The truth is that progress is usually small and sneaky. The lie is that only big will do; only big will change the world, so everyone will be kind to each other and the killing will stop.
Big is the magic we look for first, but grace is what makes things work out against all odds. If it were too big, it might sweep away all the bits of knowledge and insight we’re granted as we go along. If it were too big, it couldn’t get through the almost invisible cracks and holes in our walls, in our stone hearts; knowledge comes in tendrils.
I’m so thankful for Lamott’s words. In my heart I know that she speaks the truth. But the knowledge of the truth seeps steadily into my spirit. The “tendrils” of His ways are slowly poking into all the parts of my life. I’m a slow learner, but I will never stop trying better to learn His ways with me.
I’m thankful that God never seems to give up on the slowness of my progress. “He is like a father to us,” the Bible says. “...tender and sympathetic to those who reverence him.” And then the passage gives a wonderful reason behind God’s patience. “For he knows we are but dust.”
My willingness to learn and the constant acts of doing so are essential parts of the process of putting my whole self into life. Coming to a state of smug satisfaction with my knowledge and wisdom would make me a useless person indeed.