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You know, I think that some of the greatest lessons we learn in life are unexpected ones, and generally from unexpected people, in unexpected circumstances! Often we only recognise these moments of learning some time after the moment has passed.
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I think this is linked with engrained prejudices and culturally presumed capabilities. A book written by 2 twin teenagers deals with this from the perspective of the adolsecent - Alex and Brett Harris' book "Do Hard Things: A teenage rebellion against low expectations" (have a look at their website http://www.therebelution.com/) says this: .
"When you look around today, in terms of godly character and practical competence, our culture does not expect much of us young people. We are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but we're expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations."
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Do we expect to learn great things from teenagers and younger kids? In fact, we probably have similar prejudices for lots of different sub-categories of people: our culture sometimes does not respect the opinions and views of the elderly; of the immigrant; of the single adult...the list could go on. Would you expect great things from these people? Would you expect to learn great things from any of these people? Or do we assume that because they are not the same as us, they has nothing to offer us in terms of wisdom and advice? In the bible God challenges us to consider our hearts:
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2 Corinthians 13:5 says " Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves."
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Matthew 7:1-3 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbour's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt?"
We cannot assume that just because we are Christians and church-goers, even in ministrial positions, that our default attitude is one of perfect impartiality. Look again at this reference from Jeremiah.
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Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
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It's a painful realisation, when you find out that your not always right and don't always know what's best. You discover that perhaps someone elses idea is better than your own and that you are wrong (sometimes) - now there's something that I haven't entirely got yet - my friends can testify to that! But, there is hope (not a cop-out):
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1 John 3:20-24 "For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us."
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Let us throw of our prejudices and partiality - let us expect great unexpected things from unexpected sources. Respect others and remember to humble ourselves, because in building one another up we are all stronger!
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Let's raise our expectations, because with God NOthing is impossible!
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