“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” Brian Herbert
“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Isaac Newton
I once attended a pyramid sales network dinner. With no previous exposure to multi-level marketing, the lure of mammon was almost palpable. Every facet signalled that worth was based on sales numbers. One of the tables near the front was on a raised platform to offer psychological reward for the winners and inspire covetous aspirations among the lower-tiers.
The idea of figuring out where you are on a status ladder is almost as universal as breathing air. It could be the measure of ethnicity, intelligence, knowledge, ability, family background or a host of others. First-time meetings of any kind will usually involve conversation topics that have an unstated but ulterior purpose of finding out how we measure up.
In the Christian world it seems that too few of us have heard Jesus comment at a dinner where everyone was vying for the most important seats. He said we should intentionally take the seat with the lowest status (Luke 14:7-11). In addition, he told his disciples that the greatest in the kingdom would by those who served the most.
Which brings me to the point of the articles that follow. They are not written from a posture of spiritual expertise. They are not from a disposition of professional mastery. They are the footprints of a fellow-traveller on a road marked out for those who want Jesus to be honoured, trusted and obeyed.
A few years ago, I spent six months reflecting on the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Matt. 5:3). I started out with the assumption that if this was something Jesus taught, it must have been something he lived. I read through the four gospels numbers of times just looking to see how and where Jesus might have exemplified “poverty of spirit”.
I concluded that poverty of spirit was a disposition to always want to learn and never to assume that what you knew was all there is to know. I read where Jesus repeatedly claimed to do nothing from his own initiative but only did what he saw the Father doing (John 5). That is, in a given situation he never assumed to know regardless of previous experience.
I’ve been around a lot of Christian leaders who seemed to assume that they had attained 100% knowledge about some topic or other. When I was in their company there would always be a risk involved in suggesting something different. They were often satisfied when they had delivered their opinion and didn’t see the need for the comments or views of others.
I’ve also been with people who could sit around the same table as fellow-travellers on the same journey and be hungry to learn, to ask, and to discover more of the truth. I can tell you at which table I prefer to be seated.
These pages are for seekers, pilgrims and fellow travellers. They are designed to stimulate the desire to see and learn and grow so that we will flourish as servants of the kingdom. May the Holy Spirit qualify all of us to swim boldly out into the sea of God’s revealed truth.