it spreads; and the more internal it is, the greater distance it spreads.” (Arcana
Coelestia 6612) This teaching gives new meaning to the idea of being narrow
minded. How broadly does your thinking extend?
We can see this obviously with anyone we’d call an expert. Would you
consider someone who listens only to Beethoven a truly musical person?
Probably you’d say that she has very limited musical tastes and ability and
would likely not go to her for advice about music – perhaps not even for advice
about Beethoven.
How about someone who listens only to classical music, and cannot see
any good in any other music? Probably not a musical expert. There is much
good in jazz, folk, contemporary, religious and ethnic music. A true expert
would have specific music that she enjoyed most – her musical home – but
would also be able to understand and appreciate lots of kinds of music. We
would likely trust such a person’s musical opinion more, and we should.
Hopefully all of us want to become spiritual experts. The reason is very
simple: The more truth you see and the more you love it, the more you can
help others and the more you can protect yourself from any dangers that might
come up. This is far more the case spiritually because your spiritual spread, as
it were, comes from your heart as much as your head.
The journeys people take to Gerar and Egypt depict this spiritual need.
Several people, including Isaac, travel to Gerar, and many, including Abraham,
Joseph, the Israelites, and the Lord, travel to Egypt. Each trip involves struggle
and conflict, because real learning involves effort and putting our heart into it.
Each of these journeys represents our willingness to go back to the Word to
learn more about what the Lord says. Egypt was the source of ancient learning,
and it represents our going to the one true source of learning – the Word. We
don’t go to church as children, then stop going and simply get on with living
the simple rules. We learn and learn again. We wrestle and ponder, trying to
bring more ideas into our lives, just like people kept on going back to these
places that mean learning from the Word. And in each of these stories the
people who go to Gerar and to Egypt come away enriched. Ongoing learning
in the Word is so important because that spread of understanding is what the
world needs.
Consider this analogy. A baby is born with about 100 billion neurons in
his brain, which is about the same as what an adult has. What’s the difference
between an adult and infant brain? It’s the connection between the parts. A
baby has relatively few connecting links between these neurons. But as the
child grows the brain forms trillions of connections. If you continue using
those connections, they stay. If you stop using them they disappear, which is
why you can’t remember the French you learned in school if you have not used
it.
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