Skills are learned.
We might have an innate proclivity towards math, mechanics, or art, but we must hone our abilities to become the best we can be.
Some notable child prodigies are Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz (b. 1606) who published a set of astronomical tables when he was 10. Andre-Marie Ampere (b. 1775) wrote a treatise on conic sections at 13 and mastered known mathematics by 18. Norbert Wiener (b. 1894) started graduate courses at Harvard at 14 and received his PhD at 18, giving a dissertation on mathematical logic. Jay Luo (b. 1970) became the youngest university graduate in U.S. history at age 12.
Yet, Hunter College, founded in the 1920s for the intellectual elite, a school that only admits children with an IQ of 155 or above, has no alums who have become Nobel- or Pulitzer-prize winners, and none are nationally known in their respective fields, as revealed in a mid-1980s study, Genius Revisited.
We must hone our abilities if we want to be at the top of our game, and that includes spiritual ones. Just accepting Christ doesn’t make us a Super Christian for him. We must work at it.
Titus 2:12 says:
“[God is] training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
Our training takes place through prayer and Bible reading, certainly, but also in other ways. Sunday school teachers often learn more than their students. Youth pastors learn to be ministers through interactions with their charges. Choir leaders learn interpersonal skills thorough focusing on bringing out their members’ best. Missions workers learn that there’s more to spreading God’s Word than simply dropping a check in the offering plate.
Titus says it all in five clear steps:
1. Renounce ungodliness.
2. Walk away from worldly passions.
3. Live in a self-controlled manner.
4. Step forth uprightly.
5. Let our lives reflect God in everything we do.
These are skills, not innate abilities. Some of us will find them easier to hone, but all of us can learn them.
Anything good is worth striving for, and living a Christian life is the best thing we can hope to achieve. Sleeves up, let’s get to work!
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