Articles
Time Does Not Equate Expertise
Time Does Not Equate Expertise
Tyler King
Many of you may or may not know that I was a welder before I committed myself to full-time to ministry. In order to get started in that particular career, I attended a school in 2014 to learn the ways of fabrication and to become better acquainted with metallurgy. One of my classmates was in his late 40s and made it a point for everyone to know, “I know how to weld, I’ve been doing it for 25 years. I’m just here for the piece of paper that will get me a job.” Obviously, his attitude toward learning was less than optimal for the opportunity at hand.
At the end of each term in the school, we would have a final project that involved various welds. These projects would proceed to undergo several evaluations, such as bend-tests and dye penetration. The classmate who was “experienced” ended up failing nearly every test before dropping out of school after six weeks. His ideology of “I’ve been welding for 25 years” was contrary to the reality that presented itself.
This method of “I’ve been doing such and such for this amount of time” is invalid toward one’s expertise in a certain field of education. While I do think life experience and time are irreplaceable, I also think some fall victim to doing something wrong for a long period of time without even realizing it. I’ve seen this problem come up throughout many aspects of my spirituality. For example, I’ve prayed for as long as I can remember, but it hasn’t been until lately that I’ve truly started learning how to properly talk with God. The same goes with Bible study. I thought I knew how to study. That is, until I sat down with guys like Denny Petrillo and Dan Owen.
In His sermon on the mount, Jesus points out “you have heard it said ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Matthew 5:43). It is true that the Old Law supports the idea of loving your enemy, but nowhere does it say “you are to hate your enemy.” Notice how Jesus just simply says “you have heard it said.” This tradition that they were accustomed to was false, and there’s no telling how long they had been living by this standard. Again, just because a tradition has been around for several hundred years, does not mean it is right.
This realization has pushed me to evaluate how I approach a lot of different areas in life. There’s a great encouragement in this as we allow new resources and ideas to work in more efficient means than what we’re used to. As Jesus talked to the crowd listening to Him, He condemned violence and hatred and supported loving others instead. This new standard of life promoted peace and selflessness, while ridding the ugliness of hatred.
