June 5, 2000
Sharing to learn
___A couple of years ago I learned a surprising lesson about myself. I was sitting on a big rock perched on the lip of a rugged box canyon in the Texas badlands southwest of Iraan, under the tree in the shade, waiting for a wireline truck to finish running their perforating guns into the wellbore. There was a cool breeze blowing, and I was writing in my journal. It was so quiet and peaceful and stimulating, I wondered if I would be happy living as a hermit in the back of one of these canyons. If, that is, I had an ample supply of food and water and books and running shoes.
___The lesson I learned as I contemplated the sequestered scholarly life was that, no, I wouldn't be happy living that way. I'm not happy learning and studying and analyzing and all that unless I have an opportunity to share what I've learned. It isn't enough to learn. I want to share.
Berry Simpson
___The other weekend, I had the opportunity to share with a group of Christian men about why I study the Bible and why I believe they should do it too. It was a great experience. Afterward, a friend asked if I was happy to have this behind me, and I said no, not at all. I was ready to go find another audience somewhere and give it again.
___So why am I writing about this? Not because I was such a good speaker or performed so well. And not because I was energized by the experience. No, my point is that we should all share what God teaches us.
___The Christian life isn't a jar for holding all our spiritual lessons, but a pipeline, a conduit, to pass on God's messages after they have taken on the flavor of our lives and personal experiences.
___I don't have any theological basis for saying this, but I suspect our learning will be limited unless we find a way to share. It's as if we fill up and don't have room for more unless we pass it along.
___Any time I teach or speak, I am happy if I convince one person. I believe there always is at least one person who will connect with what I am saying and start following my advice. I just don't know which person that is, so I have to address the entire group.
___However, having said that, it isn't in the convincing that sharing has its most power. It's just that the one who shares learns the most. The process of sharing cements what we learn into our minds and hearts and makes those lessons part of us. Before sharing, what we learn is temporary and frail and tends to fly out our ears as soon as we learn it. But once we start sharing what we learn, whether in a discussion group or Bible study class or writing essays, the lessons settle in our hearts and minds and become part of our character.
___That's one of the effects of joining a group study like Bible Study Fellowship or Community Bible Study or Precepts. They force the students to share out loud what they learn. It's why I like to teach Sunday School with as much group discussion as possible, because listening to me give a lecture doesn't change lives as much as all of us sharing what we've learned.
___There is a different level of commitment once we state a spiritual lesson out loud where others can hear it. An accountability that doesn't exist if we keep our thoughts bottled up.
___Sharing lessons God has taught us also makes us vulnerable to our listeners because now they know something intimate about us. We have to live up to what we say we learned. That's good, though, because the commitment and accountability and vulnerability that come from sharing are great conduits for the grace of God.
Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and mayor pro-tem of the city of Midland.
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