LIFE LONG LEARNER

 

The Life Long Learner

 

Pastor Robert Dean Steel

Cornerstone Community Church

 

            I have heard is said that to be wise you have to be a lifelong learner.  Not

long ago I took a course called the seven laws of the learner.  The gist of the course

was to remind us that life is a class room and we are learning something every day.  God has many wonderful things He wishes us to know. 

I have discovered that if you keep your eyes, mind and heart open there is no

end of the things you can learn.  For example not long ago I learned driving in the

hills without all the right equipment means you could have to walk.  One Saturday

morning last summer I decided to take one of our two four wheel drive vehicles

out for a spin.  I was bumping along one of the back roads when all of a sudden I

heard a large bang.  I stopped the jeep and found one of the tires had popped.  So

I went to change the tire and discovered we have a lock washer nut complete with

lock on the spare and that is when I discovered we didn't have a key.  So I have to

walk out four kilometers before I could even get a signal for the cell phone I was

carried.  Hey, I wasn't totally unprepared.  Long story short I spent most of the

day getting a tire on and getting the jeep out of the bush.  I learned that when you

go in the bush be well prepared and don't take anything for granted.

            Just recently the back brakes on my Jeep finally gave out.  So I contacted my son in law who in the past had put in my front brakes in to install the new ones for me.  He came over the following Saturday and as expected the first brake shoes went in without incident.  As we took out the old shoes on the other side everything began to go wrong.  What should have taken an hour took almost eight hours and many lessons were learned.  I learned never assume that everything will go easy.  That diligence and patience is not one of my strongest characteristics and I have a great family and friends because it was only their mechanical ability that things were done.  Life is a journey and many twists and turns will come with it.  The marvelous thing is that God will be with you all the way.  He promised in Matt 28:20 that He would never leave or forsake us. 

            Here is a little story about being a life long learner.  An observer at the University of Berlin in the late 1850"s reported:  "We used to see a little white haired old and happy looking man."  This was Alexander Von Humboldt, the founder of the science of natural history department at the University.  He came to review what he had neglected in his youth.  He would sit in the classes and take notes like any other student.

            During the lecture on physical geography, the lecturer a well known scholar

himself quoted, Von Humboldt as his authority and source of material.  All eyes

turned upon the white haired scientist, who rose slightly from his seat, bowed and

then resumed taking notes. 

            Let me leave you with a quote from Winston Churchill.  "Personally I am always

ready to learn.  I do not always like be taught."  Learn your lessons well because

if you don't you may have to repeat them until you do.