I write this for myself but I believe this will speak to others too. I sit a week away from another massive change in my life. I’m doing so by choice after a slew of massive changes I had no control over. They were mostly changes I have just gone through with loved ones. Both sons are in school and training post high school. I watched my fiancĂ© that just recovered from cancer. My mother slowly fading into her twilight years as age begins to ravage her. This next hurdle should register as barely a blip on the screen, but it still gives me pause.
If it goes as everything else has in life that
I’ve applied myself intently to, it should be just another mountain to climb
like the hundred before. In the beginning it starts as faith and toiling to
complete tasks, in the end practiced routine and progress. Yet there is still
apprehension. I know that God can lay waste to men’s plans if they are not His
plans. I’ve tried to follow His voice to the best of my ability. I have my
concerns on whether I’m measure up to the needs of the position but I know its
in God’s hands regardless.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s
purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21
It is here I break with my old way of thinking on these things. Thinking I need to learn everything and be the sole go-to in every instance. Intellectual knowledge of some kind is necessary to prevent a man from embarassing himself. The well-being of the company or community does not depend upon one man's knowing something. It is dependent on one man knowing something that another man does not know. It this way I need to trust other people on my team to be able to bring me up to speed and be experts in their respective areas. There is no man that can know all things or even most things. No man, however great his knowledge, has enough of it to make him free of the knowledge of others. As mom and pop said, "No man is an island." Conversely, every man should have enough knowledge, facts and truths to enable him to properly deal with first things and make sound decisions. Inevitably the things that I bring to the table will contribute something to the well-being of all.
Some men must have theoretical knowledge, and others must know how to reduce theories to practice—the knowledge of the one is useless without the knowledge of the other. I tend to be in the latter camp. Practical knowledge applied. Praxis and mastery in certain areas to fill in that gap in the wall. Theory is great until the rubber meets the road. People don’t behave according to textbooks and it is people that make or break jobs, families and relationships.
Without such interaction with other and the relationships these interactions require the intellectual part of a man remains undeveloped, and he is very far from the
creature, intellectually considered, that God intended him to be. It is at this
crossover point that the real crux of the issue comes to light. Beyond this
human-to-human interaction there is a higher call. There is knowledge
even more useful for man to possess which will not just grow a person’s ability
and intellect and promote his temporal well-being.
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10
If a man’s existence is to be truly blessed he must know
things which relate to his God. He must understand God’s purpose for him, his
family, his vocation including his coworkers and even his neighbors and
strangers. A man that knows his position and place within God’s will can
invariably know his position with people. He must understand the will of God
concerning him, both in relation to the life that is now his and to that which
is to come for him. One cannot embrace the new without releasing the old. For
one door to open another needs to close. A man cannot accept a new
job without leaving the old. The new man cannot be blessed in future
righteousness when he is embroiled in past sin.
It is a disaster to be ignorant of things which fit a man to make the best of the present life even if they are not easy things. It is a far greater tragedy to be without that knowledge which fits a man for eternity. No man who holds the Word of God in the Scriptures close to their heart need be without the indispensable knowledge of Christ and his will over our lives.
It
is a knowledge of the glorious God in the face of Jesus Christ that is the
means by which we are delivered from the penalty and power of sin. It may not
protect us from failures in life but it gives us grace to get through the
consequences of our failure. Ignorance here is a fatal ignorance in those who
have the knowledge within their reach merely by accepting it. It is not good for any human spirit to
be without knowledge of God and it is soul-destroying to those who
have seek to find it, but cannot.
The evil which flows from ignorance of God leads to
impatience and hasty action. An impatient man is a man who does not trust God
to be his deliverer. In common and everyday life we find that the most
ignorant people are the most impatient, least cautious, and act with the least
reflection. Knowledge teaches men to think before they act, for it makes men
survivors to reflect on the importance of their actions. To own our behaviors
and understand and adapt to our shortcomings.
I may be going into new situation and need to learn
everything from scratch. But I know that if I stay the course through the
storm and difficulties coming in life (which they will), I will come out the
other side a better person. I think that is what this is really about.
Stretching myself to bring me closer to what God wants me to be and where He
wants me to be. I didn’t choose to start over because I wanted to. I chose to
do it because God needed me to.
You the reader have encountered these situations too. You've encountered them in the
past and you will encounter more in the future. Correct thinking lays the solid
cornerstone and foundation for you to step out from to launch new endeavors,
journeys or adventures. Be sure that the cornerstone is anchored in God or
assure that the cornerstone is God. This is the best platform to launch from. If your lifting off with God from the start...you're really not heading into the unknown are you?
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