Staying Aware That We Don't Know Everything

(After reading Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water, pp. 129-169, Chapters 7 and 8)

As soon as we think we know it all, we have made ourselves entirely ignorant. It is ignorant to think that we know everything. It is ignorant to think that we've got it all figured out. It is ignorant to think there is nothing more to learn.

There is so much more about life, about ourselves, about creation, about God, about the world we can see, and about the world we can't see, that we don't know. There is always more that we don't know than that which we know. We are always functioning on just knowing a tiny bit of the whole picture, with the whole picture being millions of times, infinitely as many times, as big as what we know. What we know is just the tip of the iceberg, the single cell compared to the entire body, a freckle compared to the universe.

When we know that we don't know much, then we also know that there is so much more to find out. Life is exciting! It can never grow old, for there is always so much new! There are questions we can ask, and we may or may not ever discover the answer, but just asking the question is an adventure.

As we observe the world and life, as long as we stay aware that we don't know much at all compared to what we don't know, we are ready to learn more, we are ready to gain wisdom.  But if that wisdom causes us to feel pride, our pride makes us become ignorant again. It is well to remain aware that there is more that we don't know than what we do know.

Since we realize we know so little, we certainly cannot judge someone else and consider them ignorant compared to us. It would be ridiculous to think that we have it all right and they have it all wrong, since we certainly don't own the big picture, either. We can give other people full respect, knowing they are in the same boat with us, going for the same exciting ride on this planet as we are. If their opinions differ from ours, that's great, and it doesn't have to come between us. We can love them no matter what they think. We are all still learning.