WELL, this will be my third trek on this detour from our study in our book The Complete Green Letters, Part One – Principles of Spiritual Growth. The diversion stems from a Mark Hamby “Daily Moment” comment tilted “The Screwdriver” about Mark’s encounter and reaction to his son’s request for a screwdriver, and a friend’s initially “unwelcomed” counsel that unearthed Mark’s ungodly heart attitude and resulting behavior. The point was that Marked needed the “slap” of a friend to bring him to the truth of his own unsanctified spirit and his need to repent and grow-up in Christ.
I TRULY appreciate many of Mark Hamby’s missives, as they are quite often right on point. I ended the last comment asking the question “How does this happens,” referencing how are we to grow in Christ? Again, in answer I pointed to Paul’s three-point directive in Eph. 1:16ff. But those three-points are in the context of prayer, prayer for open hearts and teachable minds – teachability.
AT CCA, one of the annual Character Trait topics in Orderliness and includes a look at “teachability.” I don’t think you can find that word in the dictionary, although the word “teachable” does exist. I sort of made this word up for my teaching purposes. Often Jesus spoke to those who “have ear to hear, let them hear,” because being teachable is the first step and key to true learning. In describing teachability, I often related to the students one illustration of how in my old Edison days, the Company had a training system in place where – in my case, power plant operation – an individual would complete the basic classroom training, then go through an on-the-job apprentice training. In the course of apprentice training, an employee would study the many systems or devices they were required to learn and operate one by one, then go to a supervisor or qualified senior employee who would ask them questions meant to demonstrate their understanding of each system, not unlike the Q&A’s of our familiar catechisms. If they answered to a point of satisfaction, then they had a little “check-off” book that would be signed off by the senior employee or supervisor. Once each system section was completed, over time this was how they would learn and advance through their job progression. It worked very well, except for one thing. It didn’t take long before the “trainees” discovered that some of those doing the “check-off” asked easier questions than others. And guess what, many a trainee would avoid going to the tough questioners for their “check-off.”
BUT, I also noticed something else. There were some “trainees” who actually avoided the easy questioners. They actually shunned the softball questions, as they were “more interested and eager to learn and be corrected,” wanting to learn to do things right, not “just get by.” This, as I explained to my CCA students, is a working definition of being “teachable” and teachability. I went on to explain that the “trainees” that went to the hard questioners eventually went on to prove themselves in other areas as well, promoted up the ladder in job advancement, became the future leaders and supervisors of others. They had a choice to take the easy way or the hard, and choose the more difficult path for their success.
THIS is problematic though for many, and a measure of true character, especially for the Christian who assumes that now that “I have chosen to follow Christ” all will be well. Here again comes “the cross;” and the sad thing is that many a believer does not understand or fully appreciate the reality of our Lord’s words that we each will go through many trials and difficulties before entering into His rest and kingdom promise. Like those few Edison “trainees” who understood that they didn’t have a choice in their true quest for competence; if we are truly His, we must pick-up our cross as His true disciple, knowing that the hard path is unavoidable in the route to what I call Christ Competence. He will put us in situations where we will be asked the tough question over and over again, “What do you truly believe?” How you (we) answer that question by your attitudes and actions will say much as to what you believe and the person you truly are.
LET me try to close this by going back to that original thought from Mark Hamby, and his reaction to his friends upbraid and rebuke.
It’s now fifteen years later. I’m happy to say that my friend’s counsel was a turning point in our lives. … I’m not what I used to be and by the grace of God I’m getting closer to who I should be.
ARE we teachable? Are we open to the counsel of others? Are we desiring to be changed and be conformed in the on-going power of the resurrection of Christ? (Eph. 1:16ff) Or are you trying to avoid the hard questions, the hard lessons, and in so doing go nowhere in your Christian walk?
…I am not yet what I ought to be, but I keep on pressing-on, regardless to the opposition within or without, says Paul in Phil 3:12ff.
As our Lord puts us in situations where our choices are limited, where we are truly tested, I’m reminded of the saying that “God created families to teach us to love people we would not naturally choose to love.” That is true of our immediate and church family as well and I’m convinced, all other corporate associations. Throughout the biblical narrative, the greatest challenges of all is the inner person as he or she run up against the others around them in dealing with our own self-centeredness, knocking off the rough edges of their un-Christ like soul (Rom. 8:29). How often does God put us in what seems to be an impossible situation where we are to “count it all joy” (James 1:2ff), to learn not only what is possible, but what can actually be accomplished if we are teachable, eager to learn, be corrected, and endure to the end (1Pet. 1:6ff).
AT the center of Paul three-part prayer in Eph. 1:16ff is the necessity and blessing of others: Church, Family, Friends, Elders, Pastor-Teachers, close encounters that test and refine our faith and grace as a disciple of Christ. (2Pet. 3:18)
Well, with that said, the next installment will get us back to The Complete Green Letters, Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 14, The Process of Discipleship.
With Highest regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas. 1:2
