Humility of Learning

While Lori and I studied in Israel, our team had several theologians with doctorates, one physician, and several young people. One morning, one young girl woke up with a spider bite. Lori directed her to the physician. Without knowing the difference between theologians with doctorates and a physician, the young girl went and showed an OT professor her bite mark and asked for his help. He apologized to her that he wasn’t a physician, although a doctor, and sent her to the physician.

People with PhDs are called many names, including those with Permanent Head Damage. One common error people make is the assumption that if someone has a doctorate, s/he is automatically smart and knows everything. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Usually, people with a doctorate are so specialized in one area that they are ignorant of others. This is the humble truth! Studying for a doctorate does teach other principles like self-discipline, the ability to think logically (mostly), and organization skills.

This long introduction is needed to understand the Lord Jesus’s parable.

“A visually impaired person cannot lead another visually impaired person. If they do, both will fall into the pit. Similarly, a student cannot take the place of a teacher [teaching fellow students.] Only when they finish their education will everyone be like their teacher.” (Luke 6:39–40)

I grew up in a school for the visually impaired (or blind), where my mother was the principal. I learned in my childhood that if a visually impaired person led another visually impaired person, both were in trouble. For every ten students, the school had a visually capable adult. Sometimes, my younger sister and I were those ‘visually capable’ people, leading the visually impaired by letting them hold on to us while we walked before them.

Similarly, if students were to teach fellow students things they haven’t yet understood, i.e., while they hadn’t finished their teaching, then both students could commit the same error. (Sadly, teachers see this when students plagiarize – one’s error gets copied by the other.) Students must wait to complete their education before they can assume the role of their teachers. Then they would be equal to their teachers.

One of the most essential Christian characters in education is humility. Dr. Hoehner was my teacher and doctoral advisor. When he did oral defense (viva), he asked a question repeatedly regardless of the student’s answers. When the student, out of desperation, finally said, “I don’t know,” he passed that student. Humility enables us to keep on learning and not become prideful. When we don’t have the humility and think we know it all, we are like the visually impaired person leading other visually impaired – we are bound to fall.