“Still a Student” Psalms 119:105
Introduction
A class of high school sophomores had been assigned a term paper. Now the day of reckoning had come, the papers were due to be handed in. The teacher knew that a particular student, named Gene, had not been working steadily on his paper as others had in the class.
He was prepared for some sort of excuse. When the teacher went to collect the papers Gene said, “My dog ate it.” The teacher, who had heard them all, gave Gene a hard stare of unbelief But Gene insisted and persisted, “It’s true. I had to force him… but he ate it.”
Journey of Discovery
This morning I want to talk to you about being a student. I want to talk to you about still being a student and what it really means to be a lifelong learner. For many of us the idea of being a student brings back bad memories of homework, tests, pop quizzes, bullies, or tough teachers who we are still quite sure really were out to get us! What I am going to share with you today represents something quite different than that, though…
When I was teenager I spent a couple of years living in Butte, Montana. Butte is nestled a mile high in the Rocky Mountains and is literally surrounded by seemingly untouched, pristine, wilderness.
I used to regularly hike and explore those mountains. I would go to the base of a mountain with a backpack and a gold pan and enough food for the day and then hike and explore. I’d find little streams and get out my gold pan and look for gold. Sometimes I would find little flakes and put them in a little vile for safekeeping.
Every now and then I would stumble upon an abandoned mining camp or a log cabin and imagine the early settlers who had come from back East in search of gold and fur… I would often stop and look out over the valleys and enjoy the clean smell of the pine as the wind swept through the trees.
Just talking about those beautiful mountains, somehow takes me back to those tranquil moments… and those hikes, those trips through the Rocky Mountains, remind me of the greater journey of our life.
Just as I used to travel through those mountains – learning all that I could… turning over rocks and sifting the sandy gavel of mountain streams… you and I travel through this life… with opportunities to learn… to still be a student… at our very fingertips every moment of every day…
This morning I want to share with you three principals that can help us to still be students… principals that help us to be lifelong learners; true disciples of the Master of Mercy… When Jesus called the disciples He called them into a lifestyle of discipleship… a way of life filled with learning from the greatest of all teachers.
Learn Something from Everyone
It has been well said that, “Every man is my superior, in that I may learn from him.” Every one of us has a unique story to tell and a distinctive lesson to teach. Be very careful about assuming that you can’t learn something from anyone… we can learn something from everyone…
I am reminded of the story of the two men were riding a bicycle built for two and they came to a big steep hill. It took a great deal of struggle for the men to complete what proved to be a very stiff climb.
When they got to the top the man in front turned to the other and said, “Boy that sure was a hard climb.” The fellow in back replied, “Yes, and if I hadn’t kept the brakes on all the way we would certainly have rolled down the hill backwards.”
People are always asking those who have achieved great accomplishments, “What’s your secret?” We always seem to assume that those who achieve great success must know something that we don’t. We naturally assume that they have, for some unknown reason been granted access to a vault of secret and valuable information.
But the truth is that all of us are surrounded by a wealth of information. The trouble is not that answers are not available to us… the trouble is that we very often are not asking the right questions to the right people.
How often do we get so involved in our problems, so caught up in our own point of view that we don’t even bother to find out if there are other potential ways of looking at our circumstances? How many times have we been blinded by having pride in our own opinion?
Proverbs 9:9 says, “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.” (ESV)
The wisest of people are not those with all of the answers… the wisest of people are those who know are not afraid to ask for the answers… the wisest of people are those who learn from everyone.
This not only applies in our personal lives. What about in our faith? Is it possible that in other expressions of our faith – there is truth? Is it possible that we, here at First Congregational Church, can learn from the experiences and wisdom of other members of the greater body of Christ?
An atheist goes to heaven, and he asks for a tour. St. Peter obliges, since heaven is a boisterous place. “Over here,” boomed the saint, “are the Catholics.” And they were in a celebratory mass, with various popes handing out the Eucharist to the rejoicing faithful.
“And over here,” continued the saint, shouting above the noise, “are the Congregationalists.” And they were doing what Congregationalists do best: chatting over a potluck.
“And over here,” whispered St. Peter, “is a more exclusive denomination.” They were solemnly praying. “Why are we whispering?” asked the atheist. “Well,” said St. Peter, “they think they’re the only ones here.”
While my intention is not to pick on any denomination, this familiar joke does illustrate the all too common assumption made by many Christians that they have somehow cornered the market on all truth.
The Christian life is a journey of faith… not a destination of conceited knowledge.
Never make knowledge a temple… never arrogantly assume that you have arrived at the pinnacle of all truth… always be a student… always be willing to learn from the wisdom of others.
Jesus Christ is the unique and total incarnation of truth, the only way, the only life, and yet we betray his spirit of love when we build such a strong wall between us and other expressions of God’s grace that we are unwilling to learn from our brothers or sisters of other expressions of faith. Jesus is our only Master; and yet without betraying him we can learn from others since all genuine truth proceeds from God and therefore is God’s truth.
Learn Something from the Scriptures
One of my least favorite things to do is to read directions. I can’t tell you how many toys, appliances, tables, or so-called “easy assembly” dressers from Wal-Mart that I have put together in my adult life!
The worst part of all of those things though, is the directions. They are nearly impossible to read and even more difficult to follow… and that’s if they are even in a language that you can read!
This life, though it hasn’t come with a set of instructions… has come with a guidebook that gives principals for daily living. Be a student of the scriptures… even though sometimes the Bible can be a little bit intimidating and difficult to understand…
A little girl returned home from Sunday school and proudly announced she had memorized a new Bible verse. “Eat carrots for me,” she recited. The confused mother called the Sunday school teacher for an explanation. She discovered the verse was 1 Peter 5:7 which in the King James Version of the Bible says, “He careth for me.”
The Scriptures are alive and breathing. Knowledge of them is more than mere facts or dates, as with many kinds of learning, knowledge of the Bible has the power to radically and permanently change your life… by changing your heart…
The American Evangelist D. L. Moody once wrote, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.” There is not a greater light to our path than the Holy Scriptures.
In the pages of the Bible, God has revealed His unending love for us… as we turn the pages of the Bible, we find God making known His promises and provision for us… The central theme of the Bible is that God is a loving Father, full of love, slow to anger and abundant in grace.
God has most fully revealed Himself here… in the pages of Scripture. How often do Christians want for freedom for a lack of time spent listening to God through the pages of Scripture.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “I ask with all my strength what God is trying to say to us through the Bible; since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way it becomes more marvelous to me every day.”
Conclusion
Each moment of our lives are like the letters that make up the words on the pages of a book. Each day is like a paragraph on a page of this book. Weeks are like sections of the book and years are like chapters.
As we go through life we move from one page to the next… we move from chapter to chapter… leaving behind the past and moving into the next stage of our life… and along the way... we are still learning – still students!
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are still being transformed more and more into His image daily. We are all students of the great teacher… disciples of the Master…
Today, I encourage you to learn from one another, learn from others, and to learn from the scriptures…
Let us pray.
