(1st Samuel 3:1-10)
Nobody knows it all.
We are all students in one capacity or the other, learning, unlearning and relearning things. We only stop learning when we die.
I remember one of the earliest lessons I was taught in Science Class is, “Matter CANNOT be created or destroyed”. I was taught that in Form 1. But when I got to Form 4, I was taught the exact opposite in Physics Class: “Matter CAN be created and destroyed”! I had to unlearn what I was taught 3 years earlier and relearn.
I am an Architect, but I was not born one.
I went through Nursery School, Primary School, Secondary School, the University for my B.Sc and M.Sc Degrees in Architecture. It was a long process of over 20 years in all.
Through the process, I was under TUTORS who trained me both formally and informally.
Life is a very long school, folks!
Sometimes, we learn from unusual sources, from people we never imagined held the key or knowledge for us to move to the next level of our lives.
Let us look at some scriptural examples…
Samuel was a young “Altar Boy”, working in the temple with T
The High Priest, Eli. One night after he went to bed, God called him. He thought it was Eli who called. It took Eli guiding him aright to understand it was God calling him and he taught him how to respond to the Voice (1st Samuel 3:1-10).
Moses was in the wilderness with the Israelites as their Leader and Judge. Everybody came to him to resolve their problems from morning till evening. It took his Father in-law to teach him to appoint other Leaders and delegate the responsibility to them, he would the handle the toughest cases (Exodus 18: 13-23).
Naaman was a Syrian Military General who had leprosy. He had done all he knew to do to get medical help to no avail. One day, a slave girl working for his wife suggested to her that if her husband would go to the Prophet in Samaria, he would get healed (2nd Kings 5: 1-3).
Apollos was a very zealous Christian, preaching in the Synagogue in Ephesus but his knowledge was limited to the Baptism of John (Water Baptism). It took Aquila and Priscilla to tutor him on how to be more effective in his Ministry (Acts 18: 24-26).
In all these examples, there was the need for a Third Party to Tutor these people to be better at what they were doing or to find solutions to their challenges.
Even Apostle Paul needed to stay with the Disciples at Damascus for some days to learn (Acts 9:19) and later with Peter for 15 days (Galatians 1:18).
I have seen people teach things and come back later to teach the exact opposite. Why? A Tutor taught them something different that was superior to what they believed before. That is why the Pharisee Saul became the Apostle Paul, that is why Pastor come back to confess they taught wrong things years earlier: They learned new things and unlearned the old.
Now, the problem we have a lot of times is, we can REFUSE to accept the new and INSIST on holding on to the old that had become OBSOLETE!
There are believers who still hold on to teachings that are no longer tenable today but out of stubbornness, REFUSE to change.
The question to YOU is, who is YOUR Tutor? Who are YOU learning from? How WILLING are you to unlearn and relearn? You cannot insist on using the Typewriter today, when the Computer is more efficient. Or insist on doing your laundry with your hands when there are Washing Machines to make it easier for you.
It takes a WILLINGNESS TO LEARN to accept counsel from a Third Party. It takes ACCEPTING YOU DON’T KNOW IT ALL to listen to counsel even from people you think you are better than.
Several decades ago, a Hotel was built in the US with 4 elevators. After a few months, they realized the volume of human traffic was higher than they had anticipated, so they called a team of Architects and Engineers to find a solution to the problem. They held meetings , going through all the floor plans looking for where to install 2 new elevators. After several days of brainstorming, the Team came to the Concierge of the Hotel to locate the points where the new elevators would be installed, how they would break through the floor slabs for the elevator chute.
A janitor cleaning the floor told them, “There is a better and easier way to install these 2 elevators without breaking through the floors , gentlemen…”
The Team was amused! What does this old Janitor KNOW?
The old man continued, “If I were you, I’d install the 2 elevator EXTERNALLY!”
That was how Panoramic Elevators became a thing: an old janitor TUTORED Architects and Engineers.
Now, who is YOUR Tutor? Are you WILLING to LEARN, RELEARN and UNLEARN?
Shalom,
Haruna Daniels