Learning as an Idiot

I recently switched job positions at my place of employment. My previous position consisted of lifting ten to thirty pound brick at a rapid pace for eight to ten hours a day. Upon undertaking this job my duties shifted from mere grunt work to work that demanded forethought, and activities that included analyzing a situation and acting according to what is necessary. At first I felt very stupid because I kept having to ask questions and would get things wrong.

After a week and a half of training I was put alone and left to work on my own. No more training. I came to recognize that the feeling of 'being stupid' was in fact the act of learning. Somehow, deep inside my consciousness, the act of entering into a new situation I had no previous clue how to do brought out some insecurity.

Insecurity in personhood, value, or ability helps no one. We are who we are. While our striving should always be towards bettering ourselves and having a clear sober vision of ourselves, when this striving comes with an overly harsh view of self then it is come out of unhealthy vice in pride. This is the pride of needing he appearance before not only others, but when the mirror of self reflection is raised we often would rather lie to ourselves and act humble and still think much of ourselves.

So later I was speaking to our plant manager, thanking him for the opportunity to training in my new position. He said it was nothing. He also went on to say he thought I was smart enough to do whatever I wanted at the company. He also said Joe, the man training me, said that I was the easiest guy he's ever had to train. It was at this moment I realized that I am, in fact, not necessarily the stupidest man on the face of the planet. With this realization came the revelation that it is easy to forget what it feels like to learn.

There in vulnerability in learning. There is an admission of a lack of knowledge, ignorance, when you take about learning a new thing, whether it be abstract, data, or skills. This is something that all humans should strive to never forget.

Some people don't want to grow. They simply wish to use what they know, and spend their time in meaningless things. This is certainly the beginning of death. A Proverb goes, "Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it." (1) Here is another instance in which the King James version of the Bible comes up short in a reading. Instead of neglect they use refuse.

Think of the planting and maintaining of a garden. If one is to refuse a garden they will have no place of beauty. Certainly to refuse wisdom and instruction is foolishness. But we are to not neglect wisdom and instruction. If you plant a garden and neglect it, it will become overgrown and only pale compared to what it should be. The same with wisdom. If one becomes complacent in learning intellectually, and spiritually, their outer and inner lives will become as the overgrown garden. Though beauty can be found, it is not as striking and potent as it ought to be. Such a thing is a shame.

So let me encourage any who would read this to continually be in the mindset to receive instruction. Constantly question wisdom, try and examine it. Let the tradition of your life's experience and the thoughts that bound you prior to attaining wisdom fall away. Approach each day as a child, constantly in wonder of the world, the truth. Never assume you have the pinnacle to knowledge and wisdom. Always examine the intricacies of wisdom. Save one caught in wickedness, never assume that something cannot be learned by another.

"Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad. My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags." (2)


"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. " (3)





1. Proverbs 8:33
2. Proverbs 23:12-21
3. Proverbs 4:23-27