Use It or Lose It

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." - James 1:22

Ever think you know something pretty well only to find out that you really don't know anything at all? I'll never forget some of my greatest blunders with this - Chinese. I was preparing to go on a missions trip to China, and I wanted to be prepared - so I studied, I read, I wrote, I even talked some in preparation for this difficult language; and I was prepared, or so I thought. The first day I arrived in China, I got off that plane, met my Chinese contacts, looked them in the eye, and then they spoke... gibberish. I couldn't make out any of it. I tried speaking back, and received blank stares in response. Let's just say there was a pretty big communication barrier until they found someone that spoke English - the next day. Although the rest of my time in China didn't reflect this experience; this was definitely a bad foot to get off on.

Well, to be completely honest, one of my biggest problems with learning the Chinese language was that I was to shy to try speaking it outside of class (to other ACTUAL Chinese speakers) back in America. I never really had practice outside of sitting in my little room attempting to say phrases that - quite frankly - were said wrong. I had this head knowledge of what the character looked like, what the phonetic spelling was, how each of the letters sounded and what THEIR phonetic spellings were, even where the diphthong was going to be placed - but practically, this was utterly useless. I didn't know how to put all of these things together and actually speak like the Chinese did; I didn't live out this knowledge of Chinese. And even though I THOUGHT I had it figured out; because I didn't use this knowledge, well, I lost it.

Sadly, I've found myself treating Christianity the same way sometimes. Why do I spend so much time studying, learning, and figuring out things in scripture that I refuse to actually live out and practice in my everyday life? Or maybe I read and learn about them and then choose to ignore them. Well, bad news for me: spiritual knowledge works a bit like my Chinese! Use it or lose it.

Luke 8:16-18 says, "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have."

When we have an encounter with Christ, we should be like the man with the candle. We don't cover or hide this knew spiritual knowledge and divine encounter, we're supposed to set it up on a candlestick. However, so many of us don't do that. We take what we hear in church, what we read in the Bible - and we put it in our box of spiritual knowledge to be pulled out when we need to make a good argument. The biggest problem with this is that this isn't active knowledge! Truth in the Bible is very active: look at John 16:13, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."

So the Spirit actively guides us into all truth; he readily helps us to understand the Word that we read and hear and then to live it out in our lives. But if we just set our knowledge of God aside, and don't even make an attempt to live it out - we actually lose our understanding of it. The last verse of the Luke 8 passage says that we need to be careful how we listen - how we understand the word of God. Similarly, James 1:22 tells us to not just be hearers, but doers of the word. The consequence that each passage presents is very similar as well: if we aren't careful to listen and understand correctly (which means applying it to our lives), then spiritual knowledge will actually be taken away from us; and if we don't live what we learn like James says, we actually deceive ourselves into thinking we understand what the Bible is saying.

I deceived myself with Chinese. I was convinced I knew it based on my study and adherence to grammar rules - but not the applicable, living out of the language. I know I've done this thousands of times with Christianity as well - learning the knowledge and not living it out. Spiritual knowledge is active, it changes and deepens as our relationship with God grows; and our relationship with God gets better as we obey what he has to say to us. There is definitely a blessing attached! For Luke 8 tells us that whoever "has" - whoever listens correctly and lives it out, to him will be given more; a greater understanding of God; deepness in their Christian walk, and intimacy in their fellowship. Overall, it's a choice. Live out our knowledge and get closer to God; don't live it out, and we get further away. Use it or lose it.