This has been a busy week for me. It has challenged me physically and mentally. I have developed a habit over the last 25 years that some might take issue with. I tend quite often to "play dumb." Someone out there might be reading this and saying, "No, David. I've read your blog before and you're really quite stupid." Fair enough. (laughing here)

I started to develop this habit when I started studying the martial arts. When I took my first formal class, I had already had some introduction to the martial arts by reading numerous books, and by receiving some instruction from a couple of different advanced black belt students from a couple of different schools. On my first night of institutional training, no one had bothered to ask if I knew anything. The things I was told I would be learning that evening, I had already been long exposed to. I knew from my amateur exposure that there are fine details applied to training and technique that can make a huge difference in application. My concern was that if I had listed my prior experiences, one of two things might happen; either it would be assumed I needed to be taken down a peg or two, (before you say that's silly--- I've seen it happen more than once) or it would be assumed that I knew more than I did and some aspect of what I needed to learn would be skipped over.

That incident is what cemented the conscious habit I tend to have toward not offering information to others when I discuss or participate in many things that I have studied or previously learned how to do. I tussled with the notion once that it might be intellectually dishonest of me to practice this habit, that it might somehow stem from a sort of conceited independence, but I knocked that over. (laughing here) I never conceal things from folks if they ask me outright, and I don't see any problem with having people explain what they know of things to their satisfaction if they assume I don't already know. Sometimes, you not only learn new things about a subject or activity, but you also may learn a great deal about the person with whom you are interacting.

The Bible is a different area all together. I don't have to play dumb. I doubt seriously that I will ever be able to make a claim of expertise regarding God's holy Word. I can read it. I can study it and meditate on it, but every time I study even the same passages again and again, there is more to learn. That however, is one of the great and beautiful things about this love letter from God to us, and, it is a wonderful demonstration of it's truth and consistency.

Proverbs 26:12 says: "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him."

And Paul says in Romans 11:32-35 : 33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

34 "For who has known the mind of the LORD?Or who has become His counselor?" 35 "Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?"
Such limitless generosity of knowledge, wisdom and goodness is a gift we can enjoy for the rest of eternity, and seeking it out is one of the most intelligent things we can do.