Usually I read through what I bring myself to read on a daily basis, BEFORE I start writing anything. Good Friday was an exception. For some reason I wrote whatever I needed to bring out of my head, before reading the Old Testament, the New Testament, and a little from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, the book I decided to pick up from the shelf and read, after Ultralearning.
I read Ultralearning, and the said Almanack usually after the Bible and the Daily Bread, but for this article, I feel as if I should be starting of with what I’m currently enjoying from Naval. He does these ‘tweetstorms’, technically blogging with tweet after tweet (now post after post, depending on when you’re reading this), not only bypassing the character limit per post, but also essentially organizing his thoughts, and presenting them more efficiently.
One such ‘tweetstorm’ focused on his insights concerning specific knowledge:
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.
Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.
Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.
Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.
From how I gather it, specific knowledge is up there with accountability (or ‘ownership’, as Jocko Willink would probably prefer to call it), and leverage (Naval explains how good marketing aids in gaining leverage in the same tweetstorm); It’s knowledge you couldn’t train for, and I’m making the assumption that it is knowledge acquired and sharpened more through repetitive application than it is through reading a book or listening to an online lesson.
And let me stop right there. I’m probably making the assumption regarding ‘repetitive application’ because of what I recall from Ultralearning. And, by the way, I suppose I’m ultralearning ultralearning, because one principle is to see how you can take what you’ve learned and apply it to other principles, whether those principles are those you already know (as we’ve weakly demonstrated with the slight allusion to Jocko Willink) or stuff you’re learning fresh (this tweetstorm regarding specific knowledge). Part of me is pretty excited – aroused, even.
Specific knowledge is not found or based on trends, nor is it primarily drawn from what you observe is preferred by people within your sphere of influence (or your ‘target market’, if you prefer); No, it’s what you learn from serving your own genuine curiosity and passion… and this, I’d like to think, has its emphasis in the word ‘GENUINE’ more than it is on curiosity and passion – meaning it’s what truly makes you curious and passionate, what gets you excited deeper than what you tell yourself and others that you’re passionate about.
Okay, while we’re on the topic of passion and curiosity, I’d like to just state something. Since we’ve already mentioned Ultralearning and Extreme Ownership, my observation is that Scott Young is saying that if you put some focus into it, you can make shallow curiosities your passions – or, you can choose your passions.
On the other hand, what I remember from reading on Jocko Willink is that in a hierarchy (and we’re all in one, more or less), your authorities can impose your curiosity upon you through what they tell you to do – and you take ownership by being passionate with your orders. Finally, Naval is telling us that our passions – our genuine passions are not trained by society, nor can it be fully imposed upon you by others.
One says you can choose your passions, one suggests you be passionate about what’s given to you, and one says your passions come from within.
They aren’t wrong, but trying to choose one or all of them has been frustrating, from at least one point of view. I feel as if they’re waves, and I’m just being tossed to and fro.
As early as five years ago I thought I had things more of less figured out, as I started reading about and from these people. Now I’m turning another decade, and though I’m not anxious, the temptation to just burst out in a pathetic pile of nothing is very strong.
I do thank God for these ‘mentors’ of sorts… but there’s no One to thank more than God, who through Christ leads us to the Word that brings life, just as He adds life to the Word we read.
I find it funny how two days ago I just was talking about how we could be real with the Lord, before I read about Hannah in 1 Samuel 1.
A little backstory here, Hannah was one of two wives of Elkanah, the other being Peninnah. The latter had children with Elkanah, but ‘the LORD had closed (Hannah’s) womb’.. and year by year Peninnah would provoke Hannah because of that.
With this mentioned, let’s read from 1 Samuel 1:9-18:
After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
I’m not sure about your own personal walk with Christ but I’ve had my share of being deeply distressed, weeping bitterly, and praying to the LORD. Only, there were no literal temples around… only a steering wheel to slam my hands on, while I would make sure to drive at a leisurely speed closer to the shoulder of the road, with the car stereo off, and the windows up. There were no priests seated besides doorposts, but I’m pretty sure there was the occasional oncoming driver or pedestrian who happened to glance at me as I passed by… again, at a leisurely speed.
Tobias Funke (of Arrested Development lore) would say, there may be hundreds of ‘Never-Nudes’ like him – maybe, ‘MILLIONS!’; I’m pretty sure there are a bunch of us who would gravitate towards driving and praying under the influence of… well, reality. Not your run-off-the-mill DUI, more like a D(P)UI(R).
Anyway, whether behind the wheel or not (actually, Christ made a lot of sense when He suggested we pray in areas of solitude, that are less likely to be in motion), our prayers would sound close to Hannah’s:
- Worship in spite of distress and bitterness (‘O LORD of hosts’)
- A cry for help and attention (‘if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant’)
- A straight-up demand (‘but will give to your servant a son’)
- …and even some bargaining (‘then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head’)
As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard.
I’m pretty sure it’s come to this point for a good number of us in the body of Christ – We burst out and cry in worship, for help, for what we need, and keep on letting it all out, until a point where there’s just nothing left for us to say, and even past glossolalia, we’re reduced to just whispers, then whimpers, then screaming without sound… down to muttering and silence.
Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.”
As mentioned earlier, we find it’s best to be on your own, but sometimes we wouldn’t have the luxury of time to find a quiet space, or an upper room – there would be other people around, hearing us, or observing us. In these times when, say, someone suddenly enters the room I’m in, I just stay silent. Thankfully I’ve never been confronted just as much as Hannah was rebuked by Eli, but I could imagine that if it came to that, there’s nothing left to do but to come clean – No BS, tell it as it is… Because apparently, you’d be surprised at the response:
Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
Now to be honest… I’m not sure now as to why this exchange ‘spoke’ to me yesterday, but I do remember thinking along the following lines: Why don’t I ask for what I want, if what I want is at least reasonable, and not fleeting and wishful in my eyes? I suppose there’s nothing to lose by asking, especially if it can be linked to Christ – even in the furthest stretch.
And now that I’m thinking about it again, I’m thinking that I don’t seem to have anyone that immediately comes to mind resembling Peninnah, mocking or provoking me for what they have and/or what I don’t have… At the very least, I’m the one who gives in to the collective side comments, and to the temptation to be envious whenever I scroll through social media. There’s the propensity for me to be my own Peninnah.
It could just be possible that I’m not asking the Lord for what I want, casually, or in Hannah’s style, because I’m too busy fretting over what I don’t have, and what other’s have. I’m being more Peninnah than Hannah – that, and (1) I’m not sure that what I want is what God wants, and (2) I’m not sure if I have the right… attitude(?) or mindset(?) behind my ask.
Thankfully, not only am I being led to read through the Old Testament, but the Daily Bread also directs me to read the New Testament in parallel, and it just so happens that I was in the more ‘meaty’ discussions of Christ, in the Gospel of John:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
…well, ‘meaty’ is more like ‘significant’ to me in this context. But I suppose that we have a picture of what God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) wants – He wants us to bear fruit. And I think I’ll venture to say, He said this before His death, resurrection and ascension.. And through the words of Paul to the Galatians, it seems He did not leave things to chance: For in his sharing of what the Holy Spirit produces in us (as we seem to enjoy sharing to our congregation and to our children), He refers to all of it as ‘fruit’:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Through Christ, we produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And let’s do some clarification here. He mentioned that any branch that does not bear fruit ‘he takes away’, which upon first glance implies that it is, well, taken away, or even cut or pulled out.
However, the Greek word used for ‘takes away’ is airō (ah’ee-ro) which means: A primary verb; to lift; by implication to take up or away; figuratively to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind); specifically to sail away (that is, weigh anchor); by Hebraism (compare [H5375]) to expiate sin: – away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).
Going through that it seems that to ‘take away’ is more of a minor meaning to the word, but did you notice that most of the meanings point more to ‘to raise’ or ‘to lift’? Even in the anchor implication, it is taken up by lifting.
So I’m joining a good number of other preachers who have already delved into this in having all of us consider – If we do not bear fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), our Father does not take us ‘away’, but ‘up’; He lovingly lifts us up.
The Holy Spirit comes to mind – Christ mentions that He convicts the world of ‘sin, righteousness and judgment’, but I have cause to believe He convicts us (who believe and are saved and are, consequently, branches to the vine) of righteousness; A picture of how we are lifted up.
Though we find ourselves like Hannah, provoked and mocked by Peninnah (ourselves or others), crying out in anguish and despair in fruitlessness, that we may produce fruit as the world insists fruit is (children and money), we can take heart, knowing that through Christ, our Father lifts us up – And He lifts us up by reminding us, first and foremost, that we are righteous – No matter what happened, is happening, or will happen; no matter what we do or is done to us, Christ has absolutely sealed the Truth that we are always in right standing with God.
And we would do well, as we also take a look at that next thing Christ mentioned: every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
I have to apologize at this point because what I always had in my head was that it was the branches that don’t bear fruit that God prunes. To be clear, if we aren’t bearing fruit, we’re lifted up… and if we do bear fruit, we’re ‘pruned’ to bear even more fruit.
Going back to the Greek, we learn and confirm that the word for prune is kathairō (kath-ah’ee-ro) which means: From G2513; to cleanse, that is, (specifically) to prune; figuratively to expiate: – purge.
I assume that there are still a bunch of folks out that put all their focus on ‘pruning’, and how we can expect God the Vinedresser to ‘cut’ things from us; These same folk are quick to follow this up with Christ’s words on the Sermon on the Mount, where He says that if our eyes cause us to sin, we pluck them out, and if our hands cause us to sin, we cut them off. I even had an experience where someone gave me a so-called prophetic word to break up with my then girlfriend, appealing to my emotion.
But here’s the thing. The point is that, if there is any pruning to be done, it’s with the motive to cleanse. I believe that branches are indeed pruned, but it’s to clean the branches, so that they are unhindered in producing even more fruit.
And this leads me to my final point in the matter. We may have our seasons of being lifted up, or being cleansed and even pruned… BUT we should take note of what Christ said immediately following this: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
So we aren’t pruned to BE clean, but we are ALREADY clean. And I dare say, if Christ mentions that the disciples then and there, before His death, resurrection, and ascension, were ALREADY clean ‘because of the word that (He has) spoken to (them)’, how much more are we clean, now that we have Christ HIMSELF, the Living Word, and the Word of Life?
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:1-11
That’s the thing – we aren’t clean solely because of the Word spoken to us, but we HAVE the Word. Christ calls His disciples to abide in Him. ‘Abide’ in the Greek is menō (men’-o), which means: A primary verb; to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): – abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for), X thine own.
And this is what we celebrate and remember this Holy Week! The second ‘Last Word’ of Christ was about His conversation with the thief on the cross, in which we settled that Christ’s words to him lay the foundation for how we should understand our salvation: That is, He was true to His guarantee (‘Truly’), He took ownership (‘I say to you’) that as he believed (‘Today’), he would be saved through Christ with him (‘You will be with me’), now and forever (‘in Paradise’).
Conclusion?
Christ was lifted up, and we are clean because Christ is the Word alive in us.
Because we are clean, we produce fruit: Love, peace, patience, joy, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.
We should remember this even when we have Peninnahs (from the inside or from the outside) provoking us, rubbing what they have to our faces while they point out what we don’t have.
Finally, what is it? Is our passion, or our specific knowledge something we can force ourselves to ultralearn, or something provided to us by our authorities to determine and work on, or something we have from within?
Well, to this, I say, ‘Yes’. The Holy Spirit moves in each and every one of us, and I believe that as He convicts us of our right standing with God, that gives us the confidence to have level-minded expectations regarding what He made us for, specifically.
And, surely, even in my age, and even with so little time… He who made me knows all there is to know about me, down to the number of (long) hairs on my head – Surely He would bring me to what I’ve been made to do.
And I produce fruit, every step of the way – that is, before, during, and after I have a family and the means to be a blessing to the world.
I will try to figure out what Specific Knowledge I have, knowing that I have my Savior with me, and my Creator on my side.
I will keep on praying, and crying out when I must, trusting in my God, and knowing that when needs be, He lifts me, or He cleans me; Or, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I am reminded that Christ lifted me up and cleansed me.
And I am thankful. Hannah’s words were heard and ‘her face was no longer sad’.
Christ spoke His words to the disciples, ‘that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.’
So shall we speak, and hear, and learn along the way.
By the grace of God, the finished work of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Cheers, to 40 more years.
Yes, I’m saying it already. I wasn’t expecting to, but here we are. I think we’re going to be writing a little bit more about this as we go along.
God bless us all.
106451/365000
#Christianity #Faith #SpiritualGrowth #LifeAt40 #Prayer #BibleStudy #Bible #PersonalReflection #ChristianLiving #PracticalChristianity #BenefitsOfSalvation #HolyWeek #SpecificKnowledge #PassionDiscovery #JesusChrist #OldTestament #NewTestament #NavalRavikant #GodsPresence #Wisdom
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment