Although it is easy to pay lip-service to the truth that no one knows everything and that we all need to be engaged in continuous learning throughout the course of our lives, in practice it is all too easy to either remain comfortable in our rigidity and to fail to recognize areas where we need to grow in understanding and practice or to become so scattered and incoherent in our approach to gaining knowledge that we fail to develop a coherent worldview to understand how our knowledge fits together. As beings interested in progress and development, we often find it difficult to navigate between the twin perils of rigidity and chaos. These difficulties, one of which is a tyrannical and authoritarian refusal to grow or change at all, and the other of which is a scattered, anarchical inability to maintain cohesion within and outside of ourselves, are present in all walks of our lives and present the two threats in our approach to life that destroy our happiness and our ability to work with others effectively.

As human beings we all have a worldview by which we assimilate new experiences and knowledge. This worldview consists of our approach to others and ourselves, our fundamental assumptions and premises about the universe, and is often unexamined and not entirely rational. Any “facts” that do not correspond with our worldview tend to be summarily rejected without a hearing, and any “facts” that correspond with our worldview tend to be accepted. The danger in this is that people tend to consider themselves the authority and the arbiter of what is true or not based on their own subjective understanding, which differs from that of others and is the source of much conflict and disagreement. Even for those of us who sincerely seek to base our worldview on the surer foundation of that which is outside of ourselves (for example, as a believer my worldview is based on scripture), there is always the problem that we must recognize that our worldview is based on our understanding of something, and not on the thing itself. Given the obvious and widespread nature of human ignorance and folly, which we cannot exempt ourselves from, we all know that our own understanding may be faulty, whether we are dealing with matters great or small.

There are a variety of responses we have to this understanding of the tentative nature of our understanding. Some are led into denial of their ignorance and a proud and defensive stand as to their own possession of the complete truth about this world. These people tyrannically make ultimate truth claims, react with extreme harshness towards anyone who would question either their understanding and conduct, and show themselves to be unwilling to learn and grow because it would seem to them an admission of failure on their part. None of us (certainly not I) are immune to this tendency. An equally foolish response is to deny that there is any kind of absolute truth whatsoever simply because we are unable to grasp it absolutely given our human limitations and frailty. Such a response leads us into chaos and confusion. Some may prefer this chaos to the rigid tyrannical order that they find even more threatening, but it is still a foolish response to the fundamental dilemmas of our existence in that it seeks to deny the ground to any sort of godly and just order. A wiser response is to seek truth genuinely and passionately, but recognize in humility that our own understanding is lacking and that we may always need to be led gently away from folly and into greater wisdom and love in our knowledge and behavior without being led into despair at our human weaknesses or those of others.

There are tremendous boosts to our pride when we think ourselves the possessors of privileged and absolute knowledge, or when we can puncture the false truth claims of others to our own satisfaction (if not to theirs), but as selfishly gratifying as such thoughts can be, their lasting virtue and worth is rather illusory. As human beings we all possess immense capacities for self-deception and the foolish and often fruitless attempts to deceive others to preserve our own sense of dignity and honor. Whether we build castles in the sky or delight in tearing down the fortifications of others, we seldom act in ways that recognize both our own shared possession of the lamentable tendencies of folly and abuse with other people. We tell ourselves that our malicious enjoyment in attacking others is done because of our love of truth, and excuse our lack of tact and compassion as being necessary tough love. In musing on our own hurts, we often fail to recognize the brokenness of others around us, who simply may be better practiced than we are at putting on a brave face and a false front to deceive others and hide their own brokenness. In the absence of humility and love and respect, we are not willing to let our own walls down for fear that the words and actions of others will wound us even more, since we do not trust that others will respond to our own struggles and wrestling with God with graciousness and mercy. It is easier to pretend to be whole than admit that we are broken, even though we can look around us and easily see that the whole world around us is broken down in every possible way.

The construction of intellectual fortifications to defend our own dignity and honor and self-respect is really often an elaborate ruse of justification. And those who tear down the fortifications of others, recognizing that these battlements and walls and trenches are a sign of weakness and not strength, do so often to prop themselves up as wise in their own eyes, failing to recognize how their lack of charity and graciousness in their dealings destroys their own happiness and relationships with others who find their destructive and harsh behavior to be impossible to accept because of their own sensitivities. How to bind up the wounds of a broken and deeply suffering world without enabling acts of self-deception is an incredibly difficult task. It is not an easy thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness and understanding and justice while recognizing our own bent towards folly, candidly admitting our own shortcomings and weaknesses without justifying them or in throwing the weaknesses of others in their own faces (or worse, embarrassing them in the eyes of others). It is a hard thing to struggle against rigidity and chaos in our own lives, harder still to be loving and considerate and encouraging of others who have their own deep struggles, but we must try our best, and hope that God will give us help beyond our own native capabilities.