We’ve heard the saying many times before: It’s not WHAT you know, it’s WHO you know. I always thought of that in negative terms. But there’s truth in that saying that will change our lives. Forever.
I consider the accumulation of knowledge to be a very good thing. In fact, learning never stops with formal schooling. We are always learning. Whether on a personal level or professional level, we manage to survive and move ahead in life largely based on what we know.
But it isn’t enough just to know a lot of things. We are also measured by what we’ve accomplished. Turning knowledge into productivity is what allows us to become successful. A college graduate cannot create a successful resume’ if it only contains things they know. Employers want evidence of accomplishment.
The essential ingredients to getting ahead are a combination of what you know and what you’ve done. So it seems like cheating when we are able to get ahead in life because we are lucky enough to know the right people in the right places. How can someone get ahead without knowledge and hard work? Can they bypass the system just because they were good friends with the boss? It just isn’t fair.
That’s life as we know it. We are performance oriented. We are supposed to earn our way to success. Shortcuts are not honorable. So it is no surprise that we carry over those same perspectives into our spiritual life. It’s easy for us to imagine that God values our extensive knowledge and our great accomplishments. It’s as though we are creating a spiritual resume’. Our tendency is to try to please God by learning enough and doing enough to impress Him.
Meanwhile, God waits for us to slow down and simply enjoy his presence. He wants us to fall in love with Him. He wants us to know him.
Jesus spoke about this very issue. He said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’” (Matthew 7:22). What an impressive spiritual resume’! They knew what to do, how to do it, and even had a nice list of accomplishments to brag about. Surely Jesus would be pleased.
But the response by Jesus is shocking. “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (v23). He not only ripped up the resume’ and kicked them out the door, but he called them evil. That goes down as the worst job interview of all time! How could they get it so wrong?
It turns out that they missed the thing that was of first importance. They lost track of the ‘why’ of what they were doing. It wasn’t about what they knew. It wasn’t about what they did. It was supposed to be about who they knew. And apparently Jesus did not know them in personal terms.
Of all the things we could do in life, spending time with God should be the most important. Isn’t that what we are supposed to teach our children? So you can imagine how thrilled I am to hold onto one of the last messages that Elijah texted to me before he died:
“I spend tons of time talking to God before going to bed.” (Elijah 2014)
Well done, Elijah. And thanks for the reminder of what’s most important.
Please ‘like’ and ‘share’ this post as you find it helpful and inspiring. Thank you.
-Ken Buchanan
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