Sage Advice

“Every man is my superior in some way. In that I can learn from him.”

          ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Scripture: Luke 2:41–52

I’ll never forget Jake. He was “old and timey,” as my grandkids used to say. His legs were thin and bowed, too spindly to hold him against the current of the Deschutes River. His waders looked older than he was; they were discolored, cracked, and patched. His coat was tattered and torn and jerry-rigged with safety pins; his ancient hat was battered and sweat-stained; his antiquated, fiberglass fly rod was scarred and taped. He was hardly state of the art.

I watched bemused as he worked his way upstream into a patch of quiet water and began to cast. And then I sat up and took notice! He was fishing water I’d fished earlier in the day and catching trout where I’d caught none.

Here was a man who could teach me a thing or two! Indeed, Emerson was right: I can learn from him.

We gain insight when we listen to those who have gone before and who know more than we do, insight that we lose when our pride gets in the way. It’s when we humble ourselves and acknowledge that we know little or nothing at all that we’re able to learn from others, and learning from others is the skill of those who are truly wise.

So, a principle emerges: ask an old grizzly. All of us need the counsel of older, wiser folks. Of course not all old-timers are wise—some folks just grow to be old fools—but here and there you’ll find old-timers who have walked a long time with God and have listened well to His counsel, and they generally have something noteworthy to say. It’s good to seek them out and ask their advice. In a multitude of such counselors, there is safety (Proverbs 11:14).

Socrates spoke of a student who never learned wisdom: “I do not suppose that either of us knows what is true and good and beautiful, but I am better off than he, for he knows nothing and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor do I think that I know” (Dialogues of Plato). The way to learn is simple, Socrates said: ask questions.

Consider our Lord, if you will, “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions . . .” (Luke 2:46).