INSTRUCTION (APRIL 9)

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"Learn from others what to pursue and what to avoid, and let your teachers be the lives of others" (Dionysius Cato).

IT’S A SIMPLE THING, BUT IT’S HARD TO ADOPT: THE WILLINGNESS TO BE INSTRUCTED. If any instruction needs to take place, it’s more satisfying to our pride to be the instructor rather than the instructee. Most of us would agree that straightening out someone else is more comfortable than being straightened out ourselves!

But if we back away from being instructed, we cut ourselves off from most of the learnings that make our lives useful and enjoyable. “Learn from others what to pursue and what to avoid,” Dionysius Cato said, and his advice is full of insight. When others try to share with us the wisdom they’ve learned from the mistakes they’ve made, common sense says we ought to be “instructable.” We need to learn from the mistakes of others because, as the old saying goes, we won’t live nearly long enough to make them all ourselves.

However, there are certainly times when our own experience can be a powerful teacher, and on such occasions we need to be just as open to our own “instruction” as we are when someone else is teaching. That’s especially true when our experience is the painful kind. Benjamin Franklin knew what he was talking about when he said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.” Yet we often ignore pain’s lessons and have to repeat our schooling even more painfully later on.

If someone pointed out how many times a day we’re in the position of either instructing or being instructed, we’d probably be surprised. The fact is, much of life consists of these two interactions. So, the more we can learn about what makes a good instructor and a good instructee, the more advantage we give ourselves in life.

When was the last time you willingly let yourself be instructed? If the honest answer is that it has been a long time, you may be older than you realize — or you may simply have let your mind grow old before its time. Like it or not, “instructability” (or the lack of it) is a prime indicator of how much life we’ve got left in us!

"Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all" (Thomas S. Szasz).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

GODLINESS (APRIL 8)

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"The difference between worldliness and godliness is a renewed mind" (Erwin W. Lutzer).

IF IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, AND THEY CLEARLY DO, THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL OF ALL OUR IDEAS IS THE IDEA OF GOD. Once we choose how we’re going to deal with this idea, a very different kind of life begins to unfold than any that would have come from another choice. Nowhere does life ask a more basic question than when it asks what we’re going to believe about God.

Today, think with me about the concept of  “godliness” as a character trait. Let’s attempt to set aside our personal preferences and predispositions and ask what would really be involved in this trait.

(1) Openness to the idea of God. “The finest fruit of serious learning should be the ability to speak the word ‘God’ without reserve or embarrassment” (Nathan M. Pusey). The godly mind is receptive to the possibility that God may be more real than we have thought.

(2) Commitment to the truth about God. ‘A’ can’t be ‘A’ and ‘Not A’ at the same time. Either it’s true that God is an objective reality or it’s not true. If, in fact, God is an objective reality, then rightly understanding the nature of that reality should matter to us greatly.

(3) Adoption of the virtue of godliness. Godliness will certainly show up outwardly, but it’s primarily an inward matter, an attribute of the heart. Godliness means seeing all worldly things from a godly perspective. It means that God is our basic frame of reference.

Among the people I know, the person who demonstrates the trait of godliness with the greatest integrity is a sister in Christ whose “renewed mind” is nothing short of a marvel. Independently and against daunting odds, she has chosen to open herself honestly to the idea of God. She is not only passionate in learning what’s true about God, but she also follows whatever facts she discovers with a you-can-count-on-it dependability almost unheard of in this day of convenience and compromise. Because of the godliness of her inward character, I trust her . . . I learn from her . . . I love her.

Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life’s common way,
In cheerful godliness.
(William Wordsworth)

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

FAIRNESS (APRIL 7)

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"Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us" (Eric Hoffer).

FAIRNESS CAN’T BE SEPARATED FROM PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. It would be unfair of me, for example, to blame you for something that was my responsibility. In fairness, I can’t ask you to accept any more responsibility than is actually yours. And the opposite is also true: I can’t expect you to take any less responsibility than your own. Fairness and personal responsibility go hand in hand.

We all prefer to live in nations, communities, and neighborhoods where justice prevails, but large-scale justice will never prevail in those areas if ordinary, small-scale fairness doesn’t prevail in our everyday dealings with the particular people we come in contact with. “A man who deals in fairness with his own, he can make manifest justice in the state” (Sophocles). So it’s a helpful exercise to ask ourselves from time to time: if everyone in the world treated people exactly as I do, what would the world be like?

Out of all the things we might want to be known for, fairness would be one of the most admirable. Whatever else might come to people’s minds when they think of us, if they think of fairness, that’s a reputation we should be glad to have. In fact, if we ever had to choose between being loved and being respected (for things like fairness), being respected would be the better choice. If those who know us can take it for granted that, come what may, we can be counted on to do what’s fair, that ought to give us a very good feeling.

In the long run, it’s foolish to deal unfairly with anyone. Doing so is morally wrong, certainly, and that should be reason enough to stay away from it, but the fact remains, unfairness is also foolish. It doesn’t work. Sooner or later, it proves to be ineffective. We may take advantage of somebody today and think we’ve gotten away with it, but sooner or later that person will realize that we’ve been unfair, and the repercussions at that time will outweigh any short-term benefit we may have gotten from acting unjustly. In the matter of fairness, as in all else, the law of the farm rules: we reap what we sow.

"Since nothing is settled until it is settled right, no matter how unlimited power a man may have, unless he exercises it fairly and justly his actions will return to plague him" (Frank A. Vanderlip).

Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com