Tag Archives: Reserving The Right To Get Smarter

day 2926: Reserving The Right To Get Smarter

“He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.”

The last few days I have been called on to give advise and counsel on a number of topics.  That is not unusual for me but what was unusual, was that for two of the sessions I knew that I wasn’t the smartest person in the room when it came to the subject and that I really needed to “up my game” to add the value that was expected of me.  Fortunately, I was able to do so and and as I reflected back on both of the conversations (on two totally different topics) I felt good about my contribution but more importantly the way in which the discussions unfolded.  My antidote to the feeling of insecurity and potentially not being up to the mark?  I decided to lead with humility and express how I was feeling. In both cases I said, “I am not the expert here, but I do know things about other areas that I feel are applicable and I hope that is enough”.  It was enough to give me the leeway to reach into what I did know better than anyone else and relate that to what was needed at the time.  It worked and I reaffirmed again to myself, and hopefully now to you, that we can always reserve the right to get smarter.

In Ephesus there was a man named Apollos that is written about in the Book of Acts.  He is memorialized forever as as what appears to be a very good teacher and speaker who knew a lot about Jesus but not everything he needed to know.  The scripture tells us that after speaking boldly in the synagogue (which must have been a real high for him) that two people took him aside after and “explained to him the way of God more accurately”.  That must have been a moment.  It would be like any of us coming off of a great presentation or leading of a meeting and then having someone say to us, “You know, what you said was right was good, but not quite right.”  We don’t know the response in the moment that Apollos had, but we do know that he continued on traveling and speaking and that as he did so, he was “of great benefit” to others.  If you’d heard Apollos speak before and after his encounter with Priscilla and Aquila, you only could believe that he’d accepted that he need to become smarter and more learned.  Is that what God is saying to us as we close out this week?  Is he asking us to open up and become smarter and more knowledgeable about Him so that we can be of greater benefit to those around us?

Reference:  Acts 18:25-26 (New Living Translation)