Teach Me Your Ways

Teach me your way, O Lord, lead me in a straight path.

 

Psalm 27:11

 

There's never a day that passes without us being taken to school in some way. Life is really all about teaching and learning. And there's a way in which neither stops from the first until the last day of our lives. So, perhaps one of the most important diagnostic questions that each of us should be asking is this, "Do I approach life as a student?"

If we are committed to know and understand, if we are committed to journey from ignorance to knowledge, and from foolishness to wisdom, if we are interested in more than our own plan and perspective, then it only makes sense to learn at the feet of the world's best Teacher.

 

Who could know more or be wiser than the One who put the universe into motion, who presently holds it together, and who controls its destiny?

 

Who could know more about the true meaning and purpose of life?

 

Who could know more about your identity?

 

Who could know more about the environment in which you live?

 

Who could know more about the foundational questions of life?

 

John Calvin's paraphrases it well, "There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God." There can be no better place to go to school than to the University of the Lord and there could be no better course of study than the way of the Lord.

His way is wisdom and wisdom requires understanding His way.

 

So where are you going for wisdom?

 

Whose school have you been attending?

 

Who shapes your definition of the meaning and purpose of life?

 

Who tells you who you are and what you should be doing?

 

Who crafts the way you look at the surrounding world?

 

Who defines your problems?

 

Who instructs your ways?

 

Who helps you to determine your life direction?

 

Who tells you what's functionally important and what isn't?

 

Who shapes your relationships?

 

Who clarifies your thinking?

 

Are you really a faithful student in the school of the Lord, or do you just attend now and then when it's convenient?

Here are a few characteristics of a student in the school of the Lord:

1. A healthy cynicism toward your own wisdom– We were never created with the autonomous capacity to be wise. Wisdom doesn't come through research, experience, and study. Wisdom comes by revelation and relationship. You only get wisdom from the One who is it's ultimate source—the Lord.

2. A humble sense of need– We know more today than we did yesterday and then we quit working to know more tomorrow. Rather than gratitude for what God has taught us, motivating us to learn more, we get smug and lazy, quite content to consider ourselves to be God's graduates.

3. A willing and open heart– Willingness and openness are the essential characteristics of any good student. Why? Because learning not only shows us what we didn't know, but points out the places where what we thought we knew was, in fact, wrong. Willingness to listen, consider, and change are in the heart of every good student.

4. Discernment, focus, and determination– Discernment means that you have to make sure that you're submitting yourself to qualified teachers. Paul says in Colossians 2:8: See, to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Once we are sitting at the feet of those who represent the Teacher of teachers, then continued learning takes focus—we live in a world of many, many voices. One truth opens the doorway to another truth. One truth functions as an interpreter of a truth previously introduced, but now understood more fully. Learning is a lifelong process and it requires perseverance.

5. Commitment to act on what is being learned– We all know that the real learning takes place after we leave the classroom and practice what we have been taught. God who is our teacher will orchestrate events, situations, and relationships for the purpose of causing us to live what we have been learning. Life is His classroom and every new location on each new day provides a rich and God-given environment to understand more deeply and to live more wisely. So, good students always carry with them the commitment to look for ways to apply what they've been learning and they know that as they do, their learning will continue and become more ingrained in them.

By God's grace we haven't been left to our own wisdom. We've been brought into personal communion with the One who's the source of everything that's wise and true. So, these questions remain:

 

Are you a committed student?

 

Whose school are you attending?