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Learning

             All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17)

 

            I have kept journals for years but reading them is frustrating and disappointing. The things I whined about years ago are what I’m whining about now. How can I be such a miserable failure that I somehow never learn? Shouldn’t I be past that by now? I mean, come…on… Oh, there are some things that I seem to be past, but they seem inconsequential compared to the stuff I just can’t learn.

            I have a school mentality of learning.  You learn that 2+2=4, and chances are that even if you forget it you can figure it out. The capital of the United States is Washington, DC. Got that. Somewhere in the records, I earned my diploma and two degrees.   But they don’t seem to have certificates in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Nor do they have them in faith, hope, and charity. For that matter, they don’t even have them in adulting!

            To make things worse, there are “alternative education facilitators” out there who want to sell us the three steps needed to power, love, peace, self-control, or something else that looks good. They might even give us a certificate, but then life does what life does, leaving us with no idea of what to do when what we learned doesn’t work, and they’re either nowhere to be found or holding out their hand for payment, again.

            What today’s passage tells us is that Scripture is a handbook that we get to keep. In any circumstance, we can find something that will do the following:

Teach: Show or explain to (someone) how to do something.

            Rebuke: Express sharp disapproval or criticism of (someone) because of their behavior or actions.

            Correct: Free from error; in accordance with fact or truth.

            Train: Teach (a person or animal) a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time.

           

            Put another way… Here’s how to do it. Here’s what it looks like.

            No, that’s not right.

            This is what you need to change and how to change it.

            Let’s try it again.

 

            The nice thing is that there’s something that’s not included: “You’ve failed….”

           

           

           

 

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