Have you ever heard the phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know”? Too many times I make decisions based on what I think rather than what I know. I often hear others use the phrase “it feels like this should be right.” We try to do the best we can, but sometimes we just don’t have the right information.
I have four kids. They are now 12-18 years old. I do the best I can as a parent, but sometimes I get it wrong. As parents, we learn from experience. We learn from observing other parents and their children. We learn from what our parents did. We do the best we can, but we don’t know what we don’t know. We make decisions on how we will raise our kids, and years later we realize some unexpected consequences of our choices. Not that they are necessarily bad, but sometimes things don’t work out like we thought they would.
As my oldest turns 18, I think about all the things I wanted to do, but never did. I think about how I had imagined life would be like now, but it isn’t. All because of choices I made. If I could go back 20 years with the knowledge I have now, I would have made some different choices along the way. I think we are all like that. Twenty years from now, we will probably be saying the same thing about the next 20 years. You don’t know what you don’t know.
It is fun to watch people who want to feel important explain a concept to someone that they clearly do not understand. Several years ago, I was working with a band at a small venue. About halfway through the night, a lady came over by me with her friend and spent several minutes explaining to her friend how I was controlling the lights for the band and how it all worked. She went into detail of how all the controls worked. Knowledge can be impressive. Her friend was either very impressed with her knowledge, or thought she was a complete idiot. I’m going to have to go with the second, because I’m a sound guy and have nothing to do with the lighting.
With so much information available to us with instant access, we still get things wrong. We live in an era of instant publishing through social media and other avenues. We now have a world full of teachers and very few students. People are so busy trying to explain how the light board works, we aren’t taking the time to realize it isn’t a light board. One challenge is most of the information we read or listen to is generally someone’s opinion rather than actual knowledge. They may site a few sources and throw in some statistics or data, but in many cases, the information they are putting out as “fact” is really just their opinion. Most of the time it is not done maliciously. They honestly believe their opinion is fact. They have done just enough research and read just enough Facebook posts to educate themselves and prove their opinion. I believe my opinion is true. If I didn’t, why would I still hold to that opinion? We don’t know what we don’t know.
Proverbs speaks often of the importance of gaining understanding and knowledge, even if it costs us all we have. It is much more than just data and reading everything we can on a topic. It is working to understand what we are reading and what to do with it. There are many intelligent people who know a great deal of information, but have no idea what to do with it. And there are people who are very good at putting things together and knowing what to do with the information they have, but don’t take the time to see if their information is true.
I write about things that I need to hear. Most of my posts are related to discussions I have had during the week or have overheard. Sometimes it is things that I have read that caught my attention and caused some spark in me. I write to help me organize my thoughts better and hope that maybe someone else my find it helpful. It is sometimes a little scary when I hit the “publish” button on a post. What if I’m wrong? What if I didn’t get it right and I direct someone down a wrong path? Just like you, I don’t know what I don’t know.
I hope that my posts encourage you and cause you to think. I hope they cause you to go in search of wisdom and understanding. I hope you don’t read these and think “He’s an idiot. I have nothing to do with the lights.”
As you go through these next Six and a half Days, I encourage you to gain wisdom and understanding. Compare my writings with the Bible, and not just the verse or 2 that I have pulled out to “prove my point”. I will continue to do the same and continue to grow in knowledge and understanding so that one day, maybe, I may gain a little bit of wisdom.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways.
James 3: 1-2
This was much needed. Very nicely put!
Hope it helps. It is easy to think I have all the right answers until I listen to someone else and hear a different perspective and realize that maybe my way isn’t the best. The more I learn and understand, the more I see how much more there is to learn. We don’t know what we don’t know.
Sometimes I think we aren’t gaining wisdom because we no longer know how to discuss. Dad used to present “arguments” and nowadays, we take that term negatively. I heard an instructor on the Great Courses explain that arguing is reasoning and discussing, but some only see this as fighting. So now, we’ve become a people who listen and believe without understanding. Or we present our side without allowing someone to challenge us.
Thanks for making me think. Call me, and we can have an argument! Haha!
Wanda
Very true. There is a thought out there that if you disagree with someone then you hate them. With that mindset, it is difficult to have a discussion. We become entrenched in defending our position rather than listening and learning. Thanks for listening and commenting.