Nathan's blog

Being a learner

I’ve been slowly reading a book by Michael Griffiths, Lamb’s dancing with wolves.1 Something he points out in a chapter entitled “Lambs bond with wolves” got me thinking. He says

To start with, all of us begin as cultural morons and linguistic idiots. We all all familiar with the pregnant phrase: ‘You must be born again!’. Entry into a new country or culture is indeed like starting all over again as a helpless baby.2

The point he is making is that in order to cross a culture we need to be learners. A learner feels inadequate and often as if they are acting like a fool. When you think about it kids are a good example. They regularly bump up against their inadequacies in language and skill set. But somehow when we grow up our inadequacy tends to be forgotten.

Yet Christians need to retain this sense of inadequacy for two reasons. Firstly in order to approach and know God through His son Jesus Christ; and secondly, in order to communicate clearly with our neighbours and across cultures. Not that we can not develop some sense of adequacy like a child does, yet the danger is that if we loose all sense of inadequacy that faith becomes mere intellectual assent and relationships become a telling rather than a doing. The question isn’t so much are you willing to cross cultures, because you already have! The question is how much are you willing to feel like a helpless baby?

http://www.claphams.info/blog/archive/2010/03/20/Being_a_learner/index.html