Day 27 | Having a Student Mentality

Reflection

One danger with naming competence as a way to be more confident is that it could appear to be about ‘doing our best’ – and leaving no room for mistakes. But nothing could be further from the truth.

A disciple is a learner – a pupil – working out how to follow the way of Jesus in their place and at this time. Learners learn from what goes wrong as well as what goes right.

We see that the first disciples make and learn from their own mistakes. For example, here they misunderstand Jesus’ words – they think a metaphor using yeast is about the actual bread they forgot to bring. On other occasions, they misrepresent His agenda – like turning little children away when He wants to bless them.

They let Him down in multiple ways, including in His hour of need. In fact, part of our confidence in the accuracy of the gospels is based on how unusual it is, in historic documents, for writers to present themselves so negatively. But along the way they learn, and through learning, competence grows.

So too, our confidence isn’t based on how reliable we have become for Jesus, but rather on our whole journey as a disciple. Our mishaps as well as successes all contribute to our discipleship journey. Amazingly, through the grace of God, we can gain competence from it all.

Responding in Prayer

Lord, don’t let me set the benchmark for competence in a way that leaves no room for failing.

Thank you that I can learn competence lessons from things going well and things going badly.

Thank you that You are always in the forgiveness-and-new-start business.