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when i was much younger my mom and dad attempted to teach me to ride a bike. i had this really cool schwin apple crate bike, it was green with a white banana seat and butterfly handlebars with white grips and the red-white-and-blue streamers (which i yanked out after the first few days, too girly)… i don’t know how many miles they pushed me on that bike but it wasn’t an insignificant number… i can still hear their footfalls and panting combined with gasped instructions on how to do it… i can remember how my heart raced with i looked and the sharp rocks whizzing by only inches from my tender, pink flesh. we didn’t have knee or elbow pads then, and no padded gloves or helmets. nothing but bare skin to break our fall to the broken chert rock road (the same stuff the indians used to make arrowheads). then, just weeks before my second grade year was to begin, i went with my mom to visit one of her friends. it seems this friend had a grandson who was visiting and bored stiff for something to do or somebody to hang out with. i don’t remember much about this kid except he did what my parents were unable to accomplish. he taught me to ride my bike rather, when i watched him ride his bike i was so ashamed that this freckle-faced, nerdy, four-eyed excuse for a boy from the city could ride his bike when i couldn’t that, well… it just happened all by itself he wasn’t afraid of the pointy chert rocks, he didn’t seem to even notice the scalpel-like edges gleaming in the ozark august sun, undimmed by the 175% humidity. i just stepped on his extremely uncool bike and pushed off like i knew what i was doing and evidently i “knew” more than i thought i’ve recently had two conversations about knowing things that we can’t teach. JR pushed me on this as did Chris… the really cool thing is that Chris taught me a new word tacit knowledge, you can read about it here and here tacit knowledge is stuff you know but can’t teach, how to balance, or how to love… as opposed to explicit knowledge, which can be taught, like how to pedal or how to be nice
so as i sit here i’m thinking about the difference between tacit knowledge of Christ and explicit knowledge of Christ. i think its like morpheus said to neo; “there’s a difference between knowing the path… and walking the path” we can sit around all day and discuss strategies but what if the most strategically sound thing i can do is be formed in the image of Jesus Christ of Nazareth? what if i honestly live out the sermon on the mount what if letting my light shine before men is the greatest evangelistic tool in my pouch what if its the only tool in my pouch what if i stopped carrying it in my pouch and started carrying it in my hand what if justice, mercy, and humility in the name of Jesus really is what seperates the sheep from the goats “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” i think its time to focus on tacit knowledge what i’m trying to say is this; “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” it seems to me that we cannot know Jesus apart from following him just as we can’t know how to ride a bike until we do it tacit knowledge cannot be taught but it can be learned does any of that make sense?
Original content by: http://towardsimplicity.net/?p=571.
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