Are you teachable?
As a youngster I recall Oklahoma pioneer evangelist/preacher Mark Baughman saying “Some people just can’t take teachin’!” At the time I did not fully understand what he was saying; however, after 20 plus years of pastoring I now understand. Some people do not possess a teachable spirit. ‘You can tell ‘em, but you can’t tell ‘em much!’
Too many people stop learning, and start dying. John Wooden, Hall of Fame basketball coach put it like this: “If I am through learning, I am through. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” Tragically a teachable spirit is a rare asset in this day and age, although possession of this attitude pays great dividends for life.
In the Great Commission Jesus emphasized the importance of teaching: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20). Obviously teaching is a major component of salvation and the work of the Church. According to Jesus the steps are go, teach, baptize, and teach some more.
Jesus’ emphasis on teaching and receiving instruction begs the questions today: “Are you teachable?” “Do you have a teachable spirit?” “How well do you receive instruction?” To be taught indictes an openness to listen and hear instruction. Some already “know it all” and have started the process of dying.
Jesus emphasized the quest for learning in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). How hungry are you for truth? How thirsty are you for knowledge? Do you think you know it all already? Sir Winston Churchill wrote “The most important thing about education is appetite.”
Too many times we are too busy speaking rather than listening and receiving information. Gerald McGinnis, CEO of Respironics, shares this powerful observation: “Value your listening and reading time at roughly ten times your talking time. This will assure you that you are on a course of continuous learning and self-improvement.” Take that advice, if you have a teachable spirit!
To be teachable requires three things: willingness to listen; willingness to act on what is heard; and willingness to respond to discipline. Ultimately having a teachable spirit means your heart is prepared to receive the seed. What is the condition of your heart?
It should come as no surprise that King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, refers in nearly every chapter of Proverbs to the value of a teachable spirit. “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life” (Proverbs 4:13) and “He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getting understanding” (Proverbs 15:32). Take it from Solomon, the epitome of wisdom, to keep on learning.
An ancient proberb sums up my feelings:
He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool, shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple, teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep, wake him.
He who knows and knows he knows: follow him.
Do not ever stop learning and receiving instruction. Always be a student. You can learn from anyone. As Ovid so succinctly wrote, “You can learn from anyone, even your enemy.”
