Something To Say

When will I feel like I have something to say?

Being in German class this summer with PhD. students has been both fascinating and intimidating. It has been a long time since I have been surrounded by a great number of people who seem to have something significant to say.

So I sit on the lawn listening to a budding scholar in Christian history talk about the affect of the reformation on today's religious climate. And a recently published philosopher talking about the contribution philosophy is making to theology in biblical interpretation.

My cup o' intellectual tea runneth over.

But do I say that I don't think theologians or philosophers are really affecting any significant change to the thought-process of the common man and certainly not in the realm of theology? No. Do I think that somehow these potential peers (hopefully) know three different languages and are flying to Europe to meet with leading researchers in their areas of expertise, effects my credibility? Heck yah!

At what point do you become qualified to share your input? Is it when you think you have something to say, or is it when you are confident that what you have to say is true, or in the very least will be taken seriously by your audience? If the latter is the case, then I wonder if I will ever have anything to say. I want to be the type of person whose wisdom doesn't have to come from assertion but from years of listening, observation, and reflection. Is there a relationship between confident assertion and one's own affirming perception of that knowledge? Am I so influenced by my surroundings that instances of confident assertion would dramatically increase if I only socialized with people I waited tables with?

Shape knowledge with wisdom, Lord, so my life can become a bold and humble assertion of Truth.