Edumacated Versus Desire to Learn

Mark Twain said, “Never let public schooling deny your child of an education.”

One of the most feared words in our world is change. In Christian terms, it’s equivalence is repent. However, we often refuse to repent, usually at our own expense.

I’ve always been mystified by the alluring power of the familiar. It’s not that I don’t experience it’s power over me. I don’t like being overweight but does that mean I will change my lifestyle issues that got me there? Hmmm.

In the church world, it’s not uncommon to find someone coming from abusive backgrounds to find themselves quite content with abusive models of leadership.

It takes a lot of energy to explore new worlds and go to places we’ve never gone before. Even once you’ve been there, done that, the next adventure still takes energy and a willingness to change.

One of the great ironies is with very educated people having a difficult time accepting new paradigms. Their circular reasoning goes this way. "I’m educated and therefore this new idea that I’m being presented with can’t be good because if it was good I would already know about it because I’m educated."

This is how some pastors rationalize what they do.
“I’m a pastor. What I’ve been doing must be right because I’ve being doing it for 20 years. It’s only my people who are stuck in the model of loving the familiar. I hate it when they say, “we’ve never done it that way before.” I’m glad I don’t think like that.”

I was a professional pastor. Because I’ve repented of the “professional” part of pastoring does that mean I’m not a pastor anymore? Because I don’t go to Sunday services does that mean I’m not a part of the body of Christ? I’ve often been asked, “What church do you go to?” My answer is, “how do I go to what I already am?” This often leads people to scratch their heads and change the conversation.

Yes, I understand that being new doesn’t mean it’s better. But just because something is new doesn’t mean I shouldn’t consider it either.

The reality is that it probably takes anywhere from 3-7 hearings before a person can even begin to comprehend a new idea. But we’re usually smart enough to not listen to new ideas more than twice.

Let's agree to disagree is the default phrase that is used to shut down discussions about something that is new. This usually occurs before people even know what they are disagreeing with.

When is the last time that you’ve read something that doesn’t already agree with you? We may be edumacated but do we desire to learn?