Are You A Learner?

Learning Facts:

FACT #1: It is possible to get an education and not learn from it.

FACT #2: Successful people are continually learning.

FACT #3: Anything not growing is diminishing.

FACT #4: There isn’t anything in life that you can’t learn something from.

One minister I know made the statement years ago that he had never heard a sermon that he didn’t learn something from, although a few had come dangerously close. Although he said it in humour, I would like to concur with his point of view and take it a step further. I have never heard, seen, or experienced anything in life that I couldn’t learn something from.

God intended for mankind to be continually growing, and to do this, we must be continually learning. Scientists tell us that our universe is constantly expanding around us. New galaxies are being formed as you read this blog. Scripture reveals that nature, in part, reveals the plans of God. If the universe that He so masterfully created is expanding and growing, while the parts that already exist are growing older and slowly dying, then we too must continue to expand and grow in experience, knowledge, and understanding to keep from diminishing.

 

Take that experience that you’d just like to sweep under the carpet for instance; the one that nothing can possibly be gleaned from. Let me share one of mine with you.

 

As a child, I had a fascination with fire. Since smoking was very popular back then, I would often see people take the match that they had lit their cigarette with, throw it in the grass, and stomp it out with their foot. Being childlike in my thinking, I was perplexed as to why the grass did not burn.

 

I was very impressed and decided to demonstrate this new found insight to my closest neighbour friend. Scooping a pack of matches from a kitchen drawer, I took my buddy and slipped between the two adjoining garages on his father’s and neighbour’s property. Near the back of the garages was a sizeable patch of dry, uncut grass. This would be the place where I demonstrated my new found knowledge.

 

Excitedly, I lit a single match as my friend looked on. I had not bothered to explain to him what I was doing as I wanted him to receive the full impact and awe of learning by experience. With the air of a magician taking to the stage, I tossed the match with grand stye into the patch of ankle high, sun dried grass. What happened next was a sight that I shall remember vividly until the day that I die.

 

With my foot poised in the air, ready to extinguish the flame immediately once it made contact with the grass, my excitement quickly morphed into horror! Almost as if the dry grass had a will of its own, and before the match even seemed to have completed its descent, the entire patch of grass burst into a roaring blaze! Even as children, our instincts caused us to leap back away from my mini inferno.

 

Within mere seconds, the flames reached out their hungry tentacles and began to lap at the siding of the two garages on either side of it. Horror of horrors! What had I done? With all the composer of superman speeding through the sky to keep a train from plummeting off a blown out bridge high above a gorge, I leapt into action! My lighting fast reasoning skills looked something like this:

 

1. These two garages and the vehicles inside of them are about to burn down.
2. I should get my friend’s dad and the neighbour quickly, but they will want to kill me when they see what I’ve done. Maybe I should get some marshmallows and a couple of sticks so my buddy and I can enjoy the last few moments of our young lives. No, let’s handle this on our own.
3. I have a balloon in my pocket and a swimming pool full of water in my yard three houses away.
4. Run home and fill the balloon with water, quickly run back spilling as little water as possible, and spray the water on the blaze.
5. Why are you still standing here? Get moving!

 

Unbeknownst to me, my neighbour, whose garage I was in the process of torching, had been watching all of the festivities from the window, except that the fire was nicely blocked from his view. All he saw was two frantic boys shouting loudly and flailing their arms as they ran back and forth through several yards (which also entailed climbing over a 5 foot fence) with what appeared to be a small balloon filled with H2O, only to disappear between the two garages. As you might imagine, and much to my gratitude today, curiosity finally got the best of him and he came out to investigate my act of arson.

 

With the kind of wisdom only a sage adult possess, he quickly whipped out a garden hose hanging on the side of his house, ran down the narrow path between the garages, and extinguished both the blazing grass and the buildings. Then, without even stopping to enjoy his victory, and with the speed of a cobra killing mongoose, he whipped out was his belt! Before I could think to flee, his lighting fast hand flashed toward my wrist and encircled it like a band of steel. At the same time, his other hand, which brandished his leather belt, went into a blur of activity which would only be described later by those who looked on as the beating of a lifetime! This continued down the driveway and sidewalk that led to my house with increased fervency, and did not cease until we were standing on the back porch of my house with my parents staring at the scene in shocked amazement.

 

I could belabour the point, but you get the idea. This is definitely one of those stories that I didn’t plan to put to paper so it could be read for generations to come. It was embarrassing, painful, and caused no small tension throughout the neighbourhood for several months after as the good citizens tried to come to grips with the thought that their houses could have been turned to ashes by my little stunt. But, was it all bad? Was there something to be learned? You bet! I will reveal just a few things that were “burned” into my brain that day.

 

1. Dry grass vs green grass … big difference.
2. If you’re going experiment with fire, don’t do it between two garages filled with vehicles and jerry cans full of fuel. And for crying out loud, have a large water source available and ready to roll on a moments notice.
3. If you’re running back and forth through your neighbour’s yard (whose garage you just set on fire) with a small balloon filled with water, don’t expect that he won’t begin to think that something is wrong and come out to investigate.
4. Just because there are laws against excessive beating of children (especially other people’s kids), don’t count on it protecting you if you do something stupid enough. Also, don’t count on your parents not high-fiving your attacker for handling you so masterfully.
5. I learned that even though I thought my neighbour just sat around most of the time, he could move extremely fast when agitated properly.
6. And, on a serious note, I learned that just because I see someone else do something, does not mean I have full understanding of what actually occurred. There may be some questions I need to ask before moving forward with a matter. A little matter like green grass vs dry grass can make all the difference.
7. I also learned that my actions have consequences that can bless or be hurtful to both myself and those around me. It always pays to give serious thought to our words and actions before moving forward.

See, there is nothing in life that we can’t learn from. Be a learner and thrive!

-Pastor Phil Lemke