being more like Jon Snow

St Clement talks to us today about being open to correction in A Year with the Church Fathers. And the lesson that we can get from him is that it's important for us to stay open for when God corrects us, even when He does it through other people.

That means staying teachable. It means being humble and open to learning new things. It means taking a page out of Socrates's playbook, and start our learning with "I know that I know nothing."

I was reading Seneca today, who was talking about Socrates and his "I know nothing", and I realized a subtle shift that I'd never picked up on before. When Socrates said, "I know nothing," I've always put the emphasis on the "nothing." He knows nothing? How can that be? But when I read Seneca, it occurred to me that Socrates was emphasizing the "know." I KNOW nothing. I have heard many things, I've learned alot, I'm open to discourse on everything. But what do I KNOW, for certain? What am I adamant and dogmatic and closeminded about? Nothing. I KNOW nothing. I'm open to learn.

Now, as Christians, we won't go to that extreme. We DO know some things. We believe in what we say in our creed, and we believe in the Bible. We "know" that these things are true. But the more rigid and closeminded and unyielding we are in our interpretation of those things to our daily lives, and the less we listen to our friends and our culture to hear what they see and think and feel, the less we will be able to connect with them and share with them what we believe, whether that be about Jesus or just about life in general.

So let's take a page out of Socrates, and from Jon Snow (who knows nothing, according to reports), and learn to "know" less, to listen more, and to grow in the listening.

God, please teach us to listen.