BEGINNER'S MIND

"Be willing to scrape away those old assumptions, to embrace new beliefs, to feel new ideas, and to lean into being wrong about things." - Sahil Bloom

One of the ideas I have latched onto this past year has been "The Beginner's Mind". To learn anything new as an adult, it is not only useful - it is essential. 

It involves embracing uncertainty.

(And that might be the hardest part.) 

We like certainty and we like being sure of our own understandings of reality. If I find myself debating someone about a topic, it is quite obvious that "I am right and he is wrong."

The beginner's mind learns to ask, "What if I am wrong about this?"

Here's a useful thought experiment relating to faith and orthodoxy:

Ask yourself, "How likely is it that my doctrinal beliefs are 100% on target?" In other words, If God Himself gave me a True/False quiz over things like infant baptism, predestination, the nature of hell, women in ministry, and every other hot button discussion Christians have, would you likely receive a perfect score?

Most are humble enough to admit their score is not likely to be perfect. 

But how many mistaken beliefs do you currently hold to? One? Two? Twenty?

(Shouldn't I be much more interested in correcting my own mistakes than in correcting my brother's or sister's?) 

And how would you ever locate those mistaken beliefs and then correct them?

It would be quite impossible to do - unless you have a beginner's mind.