Readiness of Mind
by Marshall Miles
Throughout most of my career, I have traveled a considerable amount. Typically for shorter domestic trips, I will drive myself to and from the airport. On longer trips, Jarla will often drop me off and pick me up. I vividly recall one particular trip 25 years ago. We were living in the Dallas area before Justin was born. Landon was a toddler, and Nathan was still an infant. I was returning home from a trip to Stockholm, and Jarla picked me up at the airport with the two boys in car seats. I hugged everyone, climbed into the passenger seat, and we started home. In a few minutes, Landon said, “Dad, I missed you while you were at the airport!”
He didn’t quite understand what happened at an airport, but he remembered leaving me there days ago and was happy to be reunited at this same strange place. I have often thought about that incident and wondered how often I make straightforward observations and then draw erroneous conclusions due to my lack of basic understanding. It is probably more often than I would like to believe.
I have long been fascinated and challenged by the Bereans. Perhaps you remember them. Luke, writing in the Book of Acts observes:
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (Acts 17:10-11 ESV).
Having found themselves most unwelcome in Thessalonica and accused of having turned the world upside down, Paul and Silas traveled by night to Berea, an ancient city in northern Greece. Luke was clearly impressed by the Bereans for two reasons. First, they received the word as taught by Paul and Silas with all eagerness. This eagerness was more than just an excited anticipation. The King James and other versions translate it correctly as “readiness of mind.” They were eager to learn and had accordingly prepared their hearts and minds to receive new instruction.
However, upon receiving this instruction, they then turned to the scriptures available to them and studied those to see if what Paul and Silas were telling them was in alignment with God’s word. Only then did they accept this teaching as truth.
I think we can learn a great deal from these people that Luke referred to as “noble.”
Let’s first examine the eagerness or readiness of mind. Epictetus, the Greek philosopher who would have been a young man at the time Acts was written, noted “It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.”
I believe that humility is the starting point. Solomon writes in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” And the fear of the Lord is a position of humility. In Proverbs 11:2 he writes “with the humble is wisdom.” I see two key focal points. First is admitting that there are many things we do not know and for which we need instruction. While this is challenging for many, the harder issue to come to grips with is the second. That is the idea that some of the things I know are wrong. As I approach my 60th year of life, I have come to grips with the idea that many of the things I believe are wrong. Of course, I don’t know which things. If I did, I would no longer believe them. But part of my responsibility before God is to identify and purge those errors in my thinking. It seems to me that this perspective leads to the readiness of mind to which Luke refers.
Making this readiness of mind more difficult is the fact that we tend to conflate our ideas with our identity. If someone would suggest or imply that what we believe is not true, it is not simply a matter of truth, it is an attack upon our identity, and we tend to become quite defensive and very often angry. If we begin to think of ourselves as learners and allow that which might normally make us angry to make us curious instead, I believe we would be a bit closer to those noble-minded Bereans that Luke so admires.
The second aspect of the Bereans is just as critical. That is they didn’t simply accept whatever Paul and Silas told them. Nor did they just accept the parts they liked, or which sounded good to them, or with which they already agreed. They compared all that they heard to the standard of truth to see whether or not it measured up. That standard of the truth was the word of God.
Unfortunately, the human mind contains many biases. We filter information in many different ways, accepting those things which line up with our existing perspective and rejecting those which, for whatever reason, might make us uncomfortable. In this way, we allow our identity to become our standard of truth rather than scripture. Unfortunately, our identity, in essence our pride, makes a very poor standard of truth. I believe this is why Solomon points out that wisdom resides with the humble.
I would encourage you to ponder the Bereans a bit this week and assess your own readiness of mind. You might learn something. If you do, examine it in the light of God’s word.
Author Bio
Marshall has been married to Jarla for 31 years, and they have been members of CRBC for over 20 years. They have three sons, Landon (Chelsea), Nathan (Regan) and Justin (Abby) as well as two grandchildren, Annalee and John Landon. On Sundays you will find Marshall teaching in the TBD Connection Class. On weekdays he is working for Inventronics, and on Saturdays, he will most often be found working on his ranch in Guthrie, OK.