We do not learn only from great minds: we learn from everyone, if only we observe and inquire. — C.A. Doxiadis
I have a young friend who has a habit of asking, ” Why is that. What do you mean.” It is a little unsettling to have to respond. We are so used to putting forth a position and then walking away, figuratively. Her questions are not meant to be unsettling or uncomfortable. She is inquiring, she is attempting to learn from all.
Imagine this conversation for example. ” How are you doing?”
“Very well, thank you.”
” Why is that?”
We can learn from my friend’s inquiries. Most of the time we are satisfied by hearing or observing another’s response. We accept that if someone says or appears to be doing well, that is all we need to know. We do not inquire below the surface. Yet, if you truly love, you don’t accept a “canned response.” Suzy for example will tell me when I say, “Everything is fine.”
She responds, “I know you better, what is really going on.”
When we pray to God, who loves us all, he is not going to accept our responses that life is fine, when it isn’t. God knows better, and God wants us respond in prayer by telling him what God already knows. Why? The answer is a simple as my friends inquiry, “Why is that, what do you mean?” God knows the first person we need to learn from, inquire about and observe is ourselves.
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