For a jr. high boy, standing and reading scripture in front of a room full of adults and peers is sheer torture. Let alone when the pastor chooses an Old Testament passage filled with names ending with “iah” or foreign peoples ending with “ucites.” So my hint for the kids used to be: fake confidence. Say it like you mean it! (fist raised!) Then everyone in the audience doesn’t say, “it’s Jeb-UUU-site, dummy” but rather, “Oh, THAT’S how you say it.” Just watch. When some kid follows through on this, the adults nod in agreement. That’s right, kid.
Little did I know, I was offering as advice what is commonly practiced as religion.
In Isaiah 2 today, I read that a day is coming when “He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.” (v. 4-5ish. The Message has no clear markings)
On the contrary, people are prone to “make their own gods and worship what they make.” (v 9)
How often, when we don’t know what is true or right or good, we simply make it up and declare it as God’s.
I help teach the first year medical students the osteopathic stuff before they have practical exams on it. This is the hands-on diagnosing and treating of backs, necks, arms, legs, you name it. Some of it is downright impossible to tell. Especially on your healthy peers, and especially for a first year med student. So my advice to them for the past 7 months has been “pick a diagnosis and say it with complete confidence” and the doctor grading you will be less likely to tell you you’re wrong. I tell them this frequently. And it has seemed to work out for them. Now I remember where I got that advice from 🙂