Taking the First Difficult Steps

One of the most important elements of learning is willingness.  If one wants to learn, one has to be willing.  If one wants a leader, one must be willing to be led.  If one wants victory in the struggle, one must be willing to struggle. If one is willing to learn, he must be willing to admit he doesn't know.  No one is harder to teach than someone who thinks they already know it all.  As a pastor/teacher for over three decades, it was not those who desired to learn something that caused me grief.  It was those who thought they knew more than they actually did.  When people get to that point, they are almost impossible to work with.  They won't cooperate, they won't join the team, they won't support the vision because they think they've heard it all before.  Because they've read a book or two, or they know some preacher somewhere that does it differently, they are certain they don't need to learn.  They have convinced themselves they have learned enough already.  This is especially true of those people who have made church-life their only social life and they have known all the other members for years or are related to everyone in the church.  They compare themselves to themselves and they come to the conclusion that they know as much as the next guy.  Because they and the next guy have lived together all their lives and their exposure is limited to each other and the community in which they live.


The sad fact of the matter is that there is a great attraction and even a measure of benefit to living in such a secure social bubble.  It is very comfortable and quite honestly very pro-family; but it is also very restricting and therefore potentially blinding.  One has to realize that life is not limited to such bubbles and there is a great deal to learn 'out there.'  Some of what can be learned outside that bubble is very good.  Some of course,can be very bad.  But many times God wants us to risk leaving the bubble and open our minds to what He has in store.  This is exactly what God did to Abram when He told him to leave the land of Ur.  It is not spiritually healthy to always remain in our social bubbles and be content to compare ourselves with ourselves.  The Bible makes this very clear:

2 Corinthians 10:12: HCSB
For we don't dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.  But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they lack understanding.

There is a saying I heard a long time ago.  "Learning begins with understanding how much you don't know."  Before we can learn, we must get outside the bubbles of our comfort zones and confess to ourselves that we don't know as much as we thought we did.  Learning is motivated by need.  If one perceives no need to learn more, one will not make much of an effort to do so.  He who thinks he has learned it all is probably the most ignorant.  If we are going to struggle to victory, we must begin by recognizing that the struggle is not merely with day to day circumstances. The struggle begins within the heart of each of us.  It's a struggle to humbly come to the Father to confess our need to surrender our pride.  Yet, we must come to that point if we are going to be a true disciple. Even if that means leaving the familiar bubbles of our comfort zones.  How else will we be able to obey the great commission which charges us to make disciples of all nations.

One cannot be used of God to make a disciple if he is not willing to be one.  One cannot make a learner if he is not willing to learn.  Learning begins with admitting you don't know.  It's difficult to admit we don't know until we stop comparing ourselves with those in our little bubbles. This is a difficult but necessary first step in our Struggle to Victory.  You can't learn until you willing to admit you don't know.