“When someone does work for you, you also know the difference between the two [superior versus average, rlv]. You know the difference between a good caulking job, average, and poor. Probably many of you wouldn’t even accept average, let alone poor, and you know the distinctions.”
The above comment by Kent Brandenburg on his blog spurred some further thoughts in a slightly different direction from his main point. Brandenburg explained that when someone does work for you, you know “the difference between a good caulking job, average, and poor.”
A person does not have to be capable of doing a good caulking job to know a good caulking job when he sees it. If the homeowner complains, the caulker might retort, “Have you ever applied caulk?” The homeowner might be forced to answer, “No.” This, nevertheless is not an effective retort. One who cannot do a good caulking job can nevertheless have eyes to see and recognize a job that is not good!
Sometimes a person is trying to do something, or live in a certain way, and things are not going well. Someone else recognizes they are not doing a good job. Let’s say a parent is having difficulty raising a child. A childless unmarried Christian might advise the parent that he must not “spare the rod.” The parent might retort, “Have you ever raised a child?” The childless Christian is forced to answer, “No.” This, however, does not prove the advice itself is bad. (Yes, it is easy for a person with no children to hand out advice to folks who are in the midst of raising children, and sometimes even be arrogant about it.) Nevertheless, biblical counsel is true regardless who gives it, if they give it out correctly as God gave it. God knows all things. He knows how to raise children. He wrote the book on it! Knowing the Bible, you can know what a “good job” (regarding anything) is.
3 comments:
This reminds me of when I spent a year preaching weekly at a church when I was a single man of 23-24. Half the audience was young adults, and so I spent some time teaching and preaching on the basics of biblical marriage and raising children. While I was raised by parents who provided a good example of biblical marriage and child discipline, I'd never done either; but I new that what the Bible taught was true whether or not I'd ever had the opportunity to put it into action myself. Having now been married for several years and become a father to 4 children, all those principles still hold true (even if I did underestimate the difficulty in implementing them lol).
I found this post thought-provoking. It is important that we not reject a statement as untrue just because the one making the statement may not be well-skilled in doing whatever he is evaluating.
I recall a brother in Christ once with no children giving advice (in a blog post, IIRC) about parenting. Although I knew some things he said were correct – much was, in fact, – the "spirit" or attitude in which it seemed to come across made me not take it too seriously. Probably I should have evaluated what he said more carefully.
I appreciate what Adam B. said above: "[…] Having now been married for several years and become a father to 4 children, all those principles still hold true (even if I did underestimate the difficulty in implementing them […]". Isn't that the truth!
E. T. Chapman
Adam and Eric, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I think people on both sides can stand to approach this with more humility than we often do.
Post a Comment