The Best Way To Learn

Have you ever made a bad decision? Of course you have. We all have. Sure, some of us have make bigger ones than others, but we are all in the same boat when it comes to making some bad ones that we later regret. Several years ago, I made a huge mistake in judgment that could have cost me dearly. I hopped on board a go-cart driven by a jr. high student.

Now, I know what you're thinking, big deal right? But, hear me out on this. At the time I was teaching at a school and one of my students got a brand new go-cart for Christmas. One day, while I was on my way home I saw him driving it in a field so I stopped to watch him for a few minutes. After he spotted me, he drove over to me and offered to take me for a spin. I was a little hesitant at first to hop on board, since I wasn't going to be at the controls. However, I eventually jumped into the passenger seat and we were off. We hadn't been at it long when this inexperienced jr. high driver did something really stupid. While the go-kart was at maximum speed, he cut the wheels as sharp as he could, throwing me out of the go-cart. Then the go-kart with the kid inside rolled over my back with my foot still caught in it. Needless to say, my body twisted and turned in a way it wasn't designed to do so. As I lay there with my face buried in the dirt, and my body aching all over, I was convinced something in my back or my neck had been seriously injured. In an effort to ease my mind, I just began moving things. First my fingers, then my toes, then my legs and arms. Everything was fine, just a lot of bumps, bruises, and pain.

I had survived. And because of the experience I was a bit wiser. Yep, to this day I have never again jumped into a go-kart with anyone at the helm other than me. The truth is that throughout life we will make some poor decisions. Of course, those poor decisions carry with them consequences, some worse than others. However, it's not all bad if we at least learn something as a result of it all. The tragedy would be if we went through it all and learned nothing.

Ok, so experience is an excellent teacher but there is something even better. Scripture tells us that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher. The great thing about learning from him is that it saves us all the pain and junk that comes from learning from the school of hard knocks. Remember, when I said I hesitated to hop on board with the jr. high student? I'm convinced that my "Teacher" was speaking at that very moment but I wasn't listening. I ran right past that Holy Spirit stop sign and applied for admission to the school of hard knocks. Of course, the school happily accepted me. Here's the point, the Holy Spirit is always speaking. He's always teaching us and if we'll make a decision to stop and listen for that still small voice, we will learn volumes. He'll help us to make wise decisions. Now, it doesn't mean that we will never again make a bad decision, but if we will learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, those poor decisions will become fewer and fewer.