This has proven true multiple times throughout my life; during high school, I met routinely with some middle school girls, and it never ceased to amaze me how much I learned from that half-hour meeting once a week, when I was the one who was supposed to be teaching them. I was blown over by their willingness to question things I had always accepted as true, but never really put into practice.
Or take the annual week of Vacation Bible School. The one time a year I would willingly spend time with children under the age of 12, I always managed to be challenged by the 6- and 7-year old's simple faith in Jesus. They didn't question whether he meant what he said, or challenged each other's theology. They just accepted it with innocent joy.
Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
The same holds true now. Some of the times I have learned the most since starting college have been as I was trying to lead younger students, or give advice to friends going through rough times or doubts. And take last night, (which is what prompted this post in the first place): I was part of an event at church for upcoming college freshmen and their parents, in which we older students, along with the college ministry staff, gave them advice on everything from who to date and how to do laundry to which church to get involved in and how to keep Christ first and foremost. It was interesting though, as the night went on, I noticed more and more how much I was learning in proportion to how much I was (or wasn't) teaching.
The thought struck me, at one point, that I felt completely unprepared to tell these students anything - I felt like I needed to hear the advice they were getting just as much as they did. This realization shamed me momentarily, then I realized that it shouldn't. Learning while teaching is one of the many ironies of how God works.
I think it's His way of keeping us humble, of reminding us we don't know everything.
A fact, I confess, I need to be reminded of quite frequently. I love giving advice to people, and I'm thankful that people feel they can come to me for it. But, I have realized, I often start thinking I know everything, and expect them to then live their lives according to my plan, because obviously, if they came to me for advice, then I know best... right?
Wrong... If there is one thing I have learned this year, and am continuing to learn this summer, is that my plans are NOT the best. In fact, they are rarely even good. As much as I can tend to be a control freak and desire my (and everyone else's) schedule to all work out to my liking, that's my plan, not God's. Life doesn't work that way. And as frustrated as I get when I don't know the future, when it seems like God will never respond to my endless stream of questions, when I feel like I haven't even seen him at all in awhile... I know he is there. I know his timing is better than mine, much as it pains me to admit it sometimes. And I have to trust that fact, because in an ever-changing world full of people and things that will never fulfill, complete, or satisfy me, His is the only truth that will stand firm.
The Lord foils the plans of the nations,
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
-Psalm 33:11
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