Unlearning

“I have suffered the loss of all things… that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8b).

I thought this morning of the years I spent learning, accumulating facts and organizing them into a unified whole.

But aging has meant losing, forgetting, unlearning most of what I've learned.  

Can this be gain? Can it be God’s answer to my prayer: "Unite my heart to worship You”? (Psalm 86:11)

To learn, and yet to learn, while life goes by, 

So pass the student's days;  

And thus be great, and do great things, and die, 

And lie embalmed with praise.  

My work is but to lose and to forget,  

Thus small, despised to be;  

All to unlearn—this task before me set;  

Unlearn all else but Thee. —Gerhard Ter Steegen

David Roper

5.5.18