Bah! We're Young & Brilliant

Heh. This is today's Dilbert comic and it's exactly what I was talking about here. I used to do those kinds of things in my meetings at work.

To me, this attitude smacks of Young Man Syndrome. 1 John 2 outlines one way to look at the stages of growth in our Christian lives. The young man/woman stage represents the time when we have learned a lot. The problem is not a lack of knowledge but a lack of maturity. It's not that we don't understand the problems that we face, it's that we lack the experience to properly apply that knowledge. We lack the ability to co-operate and communicate with others effectively. Being right is fine but being right and alone isn't too productive.

In practical terms, I had learned a lot at work at one point but I didn't have the character to back up my expertise. The result was that I acted like a character from a Dilbert strip.

This maturing process applies to many areas on our lives. How do we respond when we hear our pastor preach something with which we disagree? What if our parents just don't seem to get us? What if our acquaintances have silly assumptions about God? What if our Christian friends are just plain wrong about some really important things? What if other bloggers spout moronic ideas? (And I hope that I'm not referring to myself with that last comment...)

Even if we're always right (which isn't going to happen anyway), the way that we respond to others is a key difference between the cocky teenager that knows everything and the humble old man that realizes he doesn't know so much after all.