Then I’ll Go with You…

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There’s a story told, from Civil War days before American slaves were freed, about a northerner who went to a slave auction and purchased a young slave girl. As they walked away from the auction, the man turned to the girl and told her, “You’re free.”

With amazement she responded, “You mean, I’m free to do whatever I want?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And to say whatever I want to say?”

“Yes, anything.”

“And to be whatever I want to be?”

“Yep.”

“And go wherever I want to go?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile. “You’re free to go anywhere you’d like.”

She looked at him intently and replied, “Then I’ll go with you.”

And so with us.

That is discipleship.

Who better to follow than the One who saves us.

Idiot Savants – Learned Idiots

Screen Shot 2013-10-23 at 6.50.04 PMIdiot savant.

Idiot savant comes from the French meaning “learned idiot”.

Learned idiot.

One who is learned about a particular subject or topic and yet continues to live in a way that is totally inconsistent with what one knows.

Hmmm.

Screen Shot 2013-10-23 at 6.42.30 PMEugene Peterson sheds insight about learned idiots in his book “Jesus Way.” He writes:

One of the chores to which my friend was routinely assigned by his parents was what they called “riding fence.” It was mindless work: he simply rode his horse along the barbed wire fence that enclosed the cattle, who were always, it seems. Looking for breaks or weaknesses. When he found one he repaired it…

He told me that cattle are the dumbest members of the entire livestock family, animals of “little brain.” But in one thing they are absolutely brilliant: they have a genius for finding a hole or weak place in a fence. And the moment they find it they are through it, leading their sister cows and brother bulls after them into dangerous terrain where they have no skills for protecting themselves or avoiding calamity. You then have to spend the next two or three days rounding them up and returning then to where they belong and be kept alive.

I never knew I had so much in common with cattle.

Idiot savants. Learned idiots.

Ones who know what to do and how to live, and yet don’t do what they know.

Alright. That’s too much learning and confessing and reflecting and stuff.

I’m going to go watch Sports Center…