Knowledge Applied
I remember when the school district in Knoxville, Iowa, where I was privileged to serve as a substitute teacher while pastoring a local church, adopted as its Mission Statement the goal of creating “life-long learners!” Since then I have noticed that every school district in the communities we have lived in has used that same lofty ideal, in one form or another, as one of their goals in the education of their students. For the most part, learning is an elusive thing that seems to ebb and flow in most lives and is never really able to be conclusively evaluated. Tests are given at all levels to see if information has been acquired or mastered, yet even when facts are correctly regurgitated on an exam the lives and attitudes of the students give instructors reason to question whether real learning is taking place.
Educators instinctively know that information is powerless unless it is applied by the individual to live productively in society on a continuing basis. That concept seems to be intimated by teachers’ desire to create “life-long” learners. We understand that knowledge applied to daily living is what fuels a society and if that is not happening then that society exhibits symptoms of dysfunction.
The same challenge faces the people of God as they take upon themselves the high calling of following Jesus. Jesus’ own words urge us to “learn” of Him!
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Such learning begins with discovery of the truth that Jesus spoke and displayed in His earthly walk and continues with the realization that all of God’s Word supports and reveals the same truth of how life is to be lived. Learning, though, can only take place as we take that truth and actively apply it to the everyday, moment-by-moment situations we live through and which define our lives.
We understand the hypocrisy of saying we believe in Jesus and yet living lives that violate the things He taught. It is only through the presence of God’s Spirit in us that we are equipped and empowered to “learn” to follow Jesus each day. That makes our learning both life-long and full of life!
How exciting to be His people,
Pastor David Vanderpool
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