For those of us who’ve been around the block a time or two, starting to learn something new takes a certain confident humility, paradoxical as that sounds. It takes confidence to take up something new in the first place, and then those inevitable beginner’s bumps and stumbles call for humility.
Do we simply say “pass” to an opportunity to learn something new? Do we say, “I’m too [old, young, whatever] to learn this!” Or do we humbly accept that yep, we’re beginners at this and we’re going to make some mistakes along the way, so let’s confidently pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again?
When we start learning something new, it doesn’t always mean we’ll take it all the way through to competence. Sometimes we end up learning that this “something new” is really for someone else, not for us. And that’s okay, too. Let’s still celebrate the start of learning.
Today we remember Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, martyr, who died around 115. This message is an excerpt from the September stewardship devotion by Audrey Riley.
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