When you travel across this nation, you find rural and state highways that run parallel to interstate highways. The interstate is designed for high speeds and uninterrupted travel. The rural highways are often two lanes that meander through farms and small towns. On the small roads you will find stop signs and traffic lights, and sometimes a tractor will slow you down. Both highways will get you to your destination.  The interstate will get you there faster but the two lane highway will get you there contented.

When Jesus taught people He would often use parables. The word parable means “laid alongside of or parallel to”.  Jesus would use earthly examples to teach spiritual principals. The parables that He taught took the people through grain fields, sheep folds and even into pig pens.  Jesus was not one to make acquiring knowledge come easy.  He knew that the experience of learning is often just as important as the knowledge itself.

If you have a math problem to solve, you can use a pencil and paper or a calculator. With the calculator, you can find the answer but with the pencil and paper you will understand the answer.  In the same way when you are traveling, a GPS will get you to your destination.  But if you use a map, you will know how you got there.

When Jesus taught his disciples using parables, the parable was like solving a math problem with pen and paper.  He wanted His students to gain understanding more than knowledge.  And Jesus used His parables like a road map because when His disciples arrived at their destination, He wanted them to know how they got there.

This is what I hope you will do.  Stay off the interstate of knowledge.  Don’t be satisfied to learn only from preachers and teachers. Take time to ponder the Word for yourself. Slow down and meander thru the pages of the Bible. The world will tell you what to think, but Jesus wants you to know how to think. That is why it is the journey to knowledge that is most important, because it is in the journey that you gain wisdom. Knowledge without wisdom is foolishness.

Douglas Huff

From Down Where The Pavement Ends

Email-pavementendsministry@gmail.com