Learning Lessons

I wrote a blog last week that I never posted. It started, "Isn't it nice to know you are at the end of a lesson and can look back and see how all the parts fit together?" I'm glad I didn't post it, because it was made evident to me that I was not at the end of the lesson, I was at the beginning and I only just know the subject of the lesson. Just knowing a little about what I am supposed to be learning at a particular time apparently doesn't qualify as having learned it. Why would I think that? School doesn't work that way. Work doesn't work that way. Can you imagine a teacher saying, "we are going to learn about the Bolivian salt flats for the next week." And a student saying, "I'm ready to take the test, I know what it is about." Well, that maybe true, the student knows the subject of the week's lesson, but does not know nearly enough to jump to the test. Knowing the subject and knowing the details of the lesson are two completely different things. I think I'm that student when it comes to God. I try and try to figure out what the lesson is and miss most of the journey. Then when I figure out the subject of the lesson I assume I know all I am going to know or learn about that subject, therefore assuming I have learned the lesson.

So that is my personal challenge for now. To listen more and not jump to the test as soon as I know the subject.