Ancora Imparo
Teaching history in high school was not unlike bowling with the “bumpers” in the gutters.
Those bumpers kept me in the lane, provided boundaries (that I often kinda fudged) and helped prepare the students for the inevitable exams, whether from the state or the AP board. But the lanes were wide open and ripe for adventures and, as the late Paul Harvey might put it, “The rest of the story.”
Brief biographies bringing humanity to legendary figures, physical descriptions of smells and temperatures and terrain help make an event come to life, or what might have taken place after the remembered action, all helped bring the past to life for young minds just beginning their journeys. I believe and taught the lesson from a sign on my classroom wall that simply said, We were, now you are.
Here’s one.
Michelangelo was just 37 when he completed his four-year work painting the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Known as much for being a sculptor as a painter, his creations are legendary, as are stories of his life. After his soaring creativity brought the world unparalleled beauty, he was close to death and still working at 88 years old on his final sculpture (left unfinished), the Rondanini Pieta, he reportedly said,
Ancora Imparo
Still, I am learning.
As followers of Jesus we are called to apprentice to him and to continue that for our whole life long. As learners, pupils, students we continually call into question what I’m sure I know to see if it still proves true as I move closer to the Master. I chuckle over how many ideas I was sure were essential that I now have either discarded or grown to see differently.
I spent last Saturday in Corvallis with a group of older men intent on finishing strong. Four of us, who while in college attended Northwest Hills church, led NWH men on an expedition exploring what it looks like to flourish as in the 4th quarter, all the way to our end. This Michelangelo quote fits them perfectly.
Ancora Imparo
These dudes sang camp songs (complete with hand motions!) and played really silly games and laughed hard and leaned in to grasp the next handhold on their climb as we looked to the word for instruction. Still, they are both learning and necessarily unlearning. To be a Christian is not to arrive in maturity at a destination of perfect knowledge. It is to live in the posture of “Still, I am learning.”
Jesus never said, “First, agree with me.”
He said, “Follow me” and “Learn from me.”
Do you ever feel when it comes to new information like you are trying to drink from a firehose? And with information having a shorter and shorter half-life, we can only carry so much, so that demands we unlearn lies we have been told about God or ourselves over the years. Even doing the best we can, incomplete understanding and errors come along with us. That’s part of living.
As we age and follow Jesus, it’s not just about making laps around the same truths, rather the more we understand the love and grace of God and how he sees us in the midst of our mess, the easier it becomes to jettison old false assumptions to better know him more and go with what he would have us to do.
For instance, both my time with God and the service I might do can feel like simple duty I need to do as a good Christian. But I’ve learned I don’t have to perform for his smile, looking over my shoulder in hopes I’m not in trouble with the boss. I’m his child. He really does love and see me differently than I see myself. And he’s my Abba, desiring to spend time with me. So, my spending time with Jesus and joining in on what he’s doing in my town becomes a natural outgrowth of that.
Just a couple of Sundays ago, our pastor taught from Colossians 3. Verse 12 struck me hard in the most beautiful way as Paul talks of a worthy walk flowing out of belonging without fear.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
What stopped me is how God sees me: “holy and dearly loved.” Holy, seen as worthy before the Almighty. Dearly loved, a position not earned, but like sitting in warm sunshine. The message for me to unlearn is “do these things as a good boy out of duty” and I will be loved until I screw it up, again. Instead I need to learn “you are freely loved enough to live a life of freedom toward others and that shows up looking like these behaviors, coming out naturally.”
One guy on the interweb put it this way:
Faithful discipleship today requires a rhythmic dance:
receiving new insight
releasing old assumptions
welcoming fresh understandings
letting go of outdated certainties
Learning.
Unlearning.
Relearning.
That’s really scary for some who might see this as a slide away from Truth. I see it as a refining of understanding the truths I hold to and allowing for mystery and beauty and open tables to expand my heart toward my world. The Jesus I encounter now in the stories of his life I want reflected in my daily interactions, and how I put that into motion is different than it was in years past. Unlearn. Relearn. Repeat.
I’d love to visit with my younger, so confident, often arrogant self to get him to relax a bit. Sadly, none of us can do that, so we seek to repair what we may have messed up, learn from our Rabbi the next lesson, and press on. Perhaps this week take a bit of inventory of how many changes you have made in your faith thinking as you grow.
I’d love to be like Michelangelo, still working at my end, still learning new aspects of Jesus and not just making laps around the elemental things surrounded by a high fence so no new ideas can threaten my tidy theology. God is so much bigger, so more nuanced than my mind can grasp.
As for me, Ancora Imparo!
Music-time!
I almost forgot to remember…2wo bad jokes
Wife: Are you having another sleepless night?!?
Husband: Yeah! I'm so angry, I've got insomnia again.
Wife: What's eating you tonight?
Husband: It's that boss of mine! He gets me so boiling mad! He keeps bugging me all day long! Hounding me! Hounding me!! Then, when comes time to go to bed, I'm so full of "I should've said—!" that I can't get any shut-eye!
Wife: What's he got against you anyway?
Husband: He says I keep falling asleep on the job.
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Customer, "This shoe is too tight."
Salesman, "Try it with the tongue out."
Customer, "It'th thtill thoo thight."