Genesis and Matthew 34: Experts

The Lord, the God of heaven . . . will send his angel before you. 

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

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The most powerful attitude on earth, is faith. Faith is hard to come by. It is hard to cultivate. 

Life is a continuous process of learning, which is a good thing. But learning can take our eyes away from faith. We can begin to trust, too much, in what we see, hear, and feel. We become too comfortable with the known; what can be empirically demonstrated to others. We begin to want evidence, expertise, facts . . . too much.

This is why it's easier for children, in their world full of magic and imagination, to practice simple, life-changing faith. The degree to which we practice faith, in our adult lives, is the degree to which we may return ourselves to the happiness and simplicity of our youth - - - and isn't that something we all desire, at least occasionally?

I hold it, as a basic tenet, that people with learning, degrees, credentials, and expertise, are to be held in some level of suspicion. Yes, they know their stuff. They have studied medicine, or the law, or theology, for years, and years. They insist you call them by their title: "Doctor." They want everybody around them to realize that they are expert. They are paramount. They are above the rest. 

Celebrity has taken over our modern culture. When once some personage has had a few moments on national TV, it is impossible, it seems, to get them to return back to their life of anonymity. Fame is a drug. It churns those internal juices that make us feel good. You get a little high from it. 

In our passion, today, to make sense out of it, we need a cultural movement to seek the wisdom, first, of the unlearned. The unlettered. People of modest means. People that aren't in the news. People that aren't famous news celebrities. People that aren't experts. 

We just need to trust the person with the simple faith to trust God. This is the wisest one of all. This is the real expert.