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Advent 2016: The Wise Way, Day 2

Are you a learner in your life? Whom do you consult as you move along your journey?

by David Joynt on December 26, 2016


THE WISE WAY: OPENNESS

 

MATTHEW 2:1-6

The wise men, or magi, went immediately to Jerusalem and began to ask for directions. The wise way is open to others' wisdom. Sometimes our own wisdom is our worst enemy. Why? Because we become so certain of our direction that we stop inquiring. Rather than leveraging other people's knowledge and benefiting from their expertise, we close ourselves off, assuming our own understanding is sufficient. Every expert must remain a learner. Every teacher a student. Jewish Scripture scholars unearthed a prophecy that the wise men did not know and identified Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah. Without this local
knowledge, the trip might have been wasted. A moving star can locate a region, but not a precise area. Wise men, and wise women, consult. 

Are you a learner in your life?
Whom do you consult as you move along your journey?

FAMILY TIME: Who have you learned the most from in your life? How would your life be different if you treated everyone as a source of information about something?

Tags: advent, wise

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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