I was cleaning out some files and read things I wrote decades ago. Yikes! I would never say stuff like that today. I reiterated conventional wisdom because I had an amateur’s command of life. I scratched the surface by quoting “experts” and slinging jargon around like word hash to give the impression I knew what I was talking about. Now I would have to eat some of those words. Yuck!

Life makes us reconsider things. The longer we live the more things we’ll need to reconsider. It’s good to reconsider things in light of God’s Word and with a tested faith. That’s a mental habit of disciples who finally get to a point where they know what they don’t know. “Who is really wise? Who knows how to explain things? Wisdom makes one’s face shine, and it changes one’s grim look” (Ecclesiastes 8:1 GW).

When the ride gets rough, it’s the lightweights who are thrown off. You’ll see panic on their faces. They don’t have the gravitas to stay in the saddle because they haven’t paid their dues. Wise people flash wry smiles because this isn’t their first rodeo. They’ve been bucked off before. They’ve been neck deep in manure and know from experience that this too shall pass. They can explain to others how it will pass because they’ve learned some lessons in life. One lesson I’ve learned is don’t write down what you think you know in permanent marker.