Recently I blogged about Christian maturity. I think I made some good points, but I also missed some. I read an article recently about 10 things I wish I had known when I was 21. I thought that was a rather catchy title. But once I read the list I realized that it included things I still haven’t learned at 63. Maybe a better title would be 10 THINGS I WISH I HAD LEARNED BY NOW. With my alternations here they are:
1. Everyone needs to be healed from something. It seems none of us gets full grown without some damage. We could all use a little healing from the scars of growing up.
2. Mercy is greater than justice. Isn’t it time we stop looking for justice for the bad guys and mercy for us. Said another way, isn’t it time we realized, “I looked for the bad guy and found him in my mirror.
3. Kindness is better than being right. Like Yogi I’ve always considered myself “smarter than the average bear.” It’s no good to be smarter. Folks don’t care what you know ’til they know you care. You’ve heard that one for years, so how come you haven’t learned it?
4. Serving is better than being served. When do we get to the point that we look forward to Christmas as an opportunity to give and not to get.
5. We all are broken and need to be fixed. When I was in college there was a pop psychology book called, “I’m okay. You’re okay.” That’s a lie. We are all broken and the sooner we realize it the sooner we can go to Jesus and get fixed and then take our friends there with us.
6. Truth is liberating and devastating. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” He could have added, “But first it will make you miserable.” This one kind of works with number 5. It takes us way to long to learn the truth about ourselves. But that knowledge is the first step to real wisdom.
7. Learning is greater than education. When I clerked for a federal judge one of my co-clerks was a Harvard graduate. I was pretty impressed, until I spent a year with him. I finally asked him if they had taught him anything at Harvard. He said, “No, the trick there is just getting in. Once you’re in, you’ve made it.” The experiences we have are so much more important than the paper on our walls.
8. You gotta plant something to get something. Our society has lost something by becoming so urban. We don’t realize what it takes to make bread or butter or vegetables. Our answer to everything is that you can buy it at the store. So we tend to live life that way, amazed when things just don’t come our way. Jesus talked often about sowing and planting and reaping. There’s a reason for that.
9. Sorry isn’t good enough. When we’re kids we learn pretty fast to say, “I’m sorry.” It takes some maturity to learn not to make a mess in the first place. And “sorry” doesn’t fix the damage we’ve done. That takes some work.
10. Prayer is more powerful than persuasion. One of the biggest problem in the church today (boy there sure are a lot of problems in the church today) is that we think we can talk everyone out of the sins they are in to. Pray for the sinner you know instead of trying to convince them that they are wrong and you (and Jesus) are right. Look in the mirror sometimes and see you’re still pretty wrong.
We sure all still got a lot of work to do.
Nick
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