Frustration: Knowledge & Skill
I recently changed jobs and while regular paychecks are certainly a boon, there is this great frustration with the current gig. I’m responsible for a large computer reporting system that delivers financial information at a very detailed level. Cool part: I’m an expert at the technology the system runs on; the part that sucks: I really can’t tell my left from my right when it comes to the information that actually sits in the system. I wind up asking questions that would sound like this in an everyday setting: “So why do you think that the sky is slippery when the roads can’t get you to eat?” Sounds crazy eh? Yeah, that’s the look I get from people everyday as I gain the knowledge about my system.
Have you ever felt this way… had a case of not enough knowledge and plenty of skill? How about the other way – no skill and plenty of knowledge. Take for instance anyone who plays “air guitar”… there’s a sprinkle of knowledge with no skill. Have you ever been “haggled” by a saleperson? Knowledge, no skill… skillful salespeople sell you without you ever noticing.
I think being an expert is knowledge intertwined with skill… this takes practice, commitment, failure, growth, and flat out time. Huh, kinda sounds like struggling with the Christian walk.
I think about times when I reacted too soon, knee-jerk like – was that a lack of knowledge or skill? My Christian friends might think that skill has nothing to do with our walk, but I like to think of the walk as a journey of a warrior. We have a king and a holy man to take our guidance from, but we still have to hit the dirt and struggle against the fallen world, ourselves, and the Enemy.
Are you frustrated? Check your skills and knowledge.
Author: Brett Veenstra | Category: Disciple | Comments(3) February 2006
This is so true.<br/><br/>At work, to keep up on my knowledge I have to read and re-read things to keep it up since I forget like a gold fish (they have a 5 second memory).<br/><br/>At the same time, I have to practice, to keep up the skill. If I don’t then over time I forget things.<br/><br/>Same thing with our walk with God. If we don’t read up and practice with loose the knowledge and skill. Yet, the more we read and practice the more knowledge we gain and skill we have to wield.<br/><br/>I likie. This is so true.<br/><br/>Makes me think of people who say they have read the bible and people who actively read the bible. One did it at one time and aother reads it and keeps the knowledge up.
i love the example question about the sky and the roads and whatnot, that made me chuckle….so, i was helping “helping” my sister with her economics homework and i felt the same twinge of having some skill at studying and knowing how to figure things out in a general way, but then i had absolutely no reference point on which to draw knowledge from – from an economics angle. I have no clue about economics – terms like tarriff, regional trade agreement and multilateralism – these were being strewn about so freely that i felt like i was WAY out of my league…..anyway, i “likey” also…..and i guess i feel the same about bringing people to God, i feel like i have some “some” skill, and i guess i have some knowledge, but i don’t really know how to use the knowledge yet…..thats one thing i admire about dion, he has alot of knowledge and he knows how to apply it and teach it…..sorry about my ANNOYING method of typing, run-on sentences, dashes, no capilatlization, dot-dot-sot everywhere….i’m pretty annoying…..
nothing annoyInG aT AlL jOc<br/><br/>Thank you for bringing the Knowledge & Skill factor into sharing Jesus with others.