Changing From Information to Transformation

I was looking at a site on Christianity and Mental Health called Mind and Soul and came across an article on the need for churches to change their approach on how they teach their congregation. The situation that is described is one that I have certainly felt - being told what's wrong with you but not how to fix it. The truth is that even if I do learn something new, if I don't apply it then I will forget it.

I think one sentence sums it all up well, "Most people don't need information, they need techniques to help them change and a supporting culture in which to do (so)." I think that is what many of us long for. The opportunity to grow in a supportive and instructive environment.

Learning is Doing

As I learn so many interesting things about how we as humans think, sometimes I can keep it at an intellectual level. But this is in spite of everything I believe about learning. I believe that you don't know something unless it changes you. A smoker does not know that smoking is harmful until that knowledge changes their actions. I can know that behaviors that isolate me will only rob me of energy and make me depressed but until I act on that knowledge, I do not really know it.

The difference may seem trivial but I think that incarnating our knowledge into action represents a much higher respect for truth. I am a liar when I do anything that is against the truth. If I know that the truth is one way and I continue on in my old ways, then I am a liar.

Knowledge that transforms us is peculiar. We can learn something as an object and it will remain distant. But when we learn something and let the knowledge change us, that is treating what we learned as a subject which we have relationship with. I rule over and dominate objects but I respect and love subjects. Such a relationship frees us to live authentic lives, according to truth.