Last week while in Illinois, I tried to find “my” expressway back to Michigan by using a short-cut. Sadly, my instincts were off, and I got lost, wasting a precious half-hour late at night. For this reason and others, my kids have urged me to buy a GPS. I don’t even know what the letters stand for.
But this week, with their recommendations in hand, I drove to Walmart to see if they had a GPS simple enough for simple-minded me. When I got it home, I couldn’t even figure out how to attach it to the car.
Thankfully, Klaus came to the rescue, giving me a short course in how to make it work. I can see, though, there will be a steep learning curve in using it, just like there’s been for every electronic gadget I’ve owned. That is, if a GPS is an electronic gadget. I don’t know that, either.
I often think of how little we know as we pace through life. For example, I understood only 1% of what Nate did every day of the week as a lawyer. And when the electrician put in our new furnace, it was a another mystery. When a nurse takes my blood pressure, I can’t figure out what she’s listening for with her stethoscope. On and on the ignorance goes. It’s a wonder I can tie my shoes. Come to think of it, I wear slip-on clogs.
Who among us can really claim to be an expert at something? As God looks down from heaven, he must get a kick out of someone claiming to be an authority on some subject. Compared to him, even a lifelong expert knows very little. But the more important question is, what is it we’re trying to get good at? Are we working to master the things that matter?
Scripture tells us if we want to be experts, we should start by pursuing a trio of subjects God refers to frequently: wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Wisdom is determining what’s right and then doing it. Knowledge is learning facts, investigating information. Understanding is putting the other two together with discernment.
Questing after these intangibles is a challenge, but there is a way to work on all three at once: just study Jesus. The Bible tells us he’s #1 at wisdom, knowledge and understanding. We may work hard to become experts at repairing cars, knitting sweaters, speaking foreign languages or running marathons. But the expertise that matters most is gained when we draw close to Jesus.
And as we get more and more wisdom, knowledge and understanding from him, he’ll direct us to all kinds of other information, maybe even the meaning of the letters GPS.
Wait a minute! I just remembered! It stands for Global Positioning System. Was it the Lord who brought that to my mind?
“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him [Jesus]— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding… the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2)
You are making me almost laugh. Guess who bought a GPS? Now, I’m going to need YOUR help. I discover things by accident, and then cannot repeat the process, cause I don’t know what I accidentally did correctly!!
Ha ha! I’m glad you finally got the GPS. You’re all set to come down and see us!
Always inspiring. Your humility is a refreshing characteristic today.
We can identify. We were in Williamsburg at a timeshare as guests of friends, and we had to call the front desk to ask how to make the DVD player work. :/
You will love that thing once you get used to it. Just sit in the car sometime and play with it. You are smarter than you give yourself credit for gal!
Amen and Amen – look to Jesus.
Love your sense of humor combined with hitting the target.
Thank God for smart children and grandchildren who have wisdom, knowledge and understanding to have patience to teach us older folk who are
somewhat intimidated by all the new doo-dads on the market. I don’t how we all survived before they came into being! However, they sure are handy – at times.
i agree with TLC -” you’re a LOT SMARTER than you give yourself credit for.”
Will you pardon a geeky and enthusiastic nursing student for speaking up? Cuz’ I know this one!
You want to know what the nurse is listening for? It’s your pulse! Well, sort of. Normally, when you aren’t wearing a blood pressure cuff, healthy blood vessels let blood flow silently. When she pumps up the cuff on your arm it eventually stops the blood flow, just like pinching a water hose. Then, as she slowly lets off the pressure, she’ll eventually hear the thumping sound of your blood flowing (the high number equals the pressure your heart is exerting on your blood when it pumps a heartbeat and is the first sound she hears). As the pressure keeps on falling, the thumping sound dies away and the last number she read on the gauge when she heard the last thump equals the pressure of your blood flowing in between heartbeats (the low number).
Oh, and I’m glad you have a GPS. Once we got used to ours we wondered what we’d ever done without it. 🙂
Set that Global Positioning System(and that’s all I know about it!) for Asheville, NC! Hugs!