Action and Reaction: Wisdom Found Through Stepping Back (Episode 1)

I have a confession to make to my Bible College community. I Gabriel Stice, am a theological elitist. I value my opinion over most of my fellow students. I give my self the benefit of the doubt in almost every argument. Sometimes I form opinions on the fly but this is usually when I don’t bring up the topic. I state my opinion and state it often. If you want to see what an ENTJ personality is like you can look it up. My highly extroverted disposition can be quite annoying to those I discuss theology with and for myself. I’m not intending to villianize myself but rather give a breathe of fresh, honest air to those I interact with often. I take full responsibility for all of this as well. There is simply no excuse other than a lack of wisdom on my part. So I stand here a foolish man and repentant of the uncomfortable atmosphere I often provide for my friends, fellow students, and faculty at Multnomah and Coram Deo Fellowship. This is my story of bridging the gap between biblical/theological knowledge and the wisdom it takes to handle such powerful things.

My freshmen year I discovered something amazing. I loved theology. Often I would engage in discussion with friends such as Andrew King and Wes Jang about the different facets of theology. Every time I would learn something new in my Philosophy class or my Bible Study Methods class I would bring it back to the dorm and argue some point I learned. I failed to ponder or meditate on what I had learned. I simply assumed what I thought was right and wanted to tell somebody about how right I was. Andrew and my friend Bryce got the worst of it. I loved sucking those two into an argument because they couldn’t resist most times. They’ve gotten much wiser at resisting my temptations as of late. Andrew and me one night in the South Aldrich dorm lounge argued from 11:00pm to 4am about Hardcore music, post-modernism, Arminian-Calvinist, etc. My relationships started to suffer. People intentionally avoided me that semester due to my argumentative disposition. I remember basically trying to be friends with a fellow student this one time and he told me I wouldn’t make for a healthy friend. Something had to change. That summer afterwards was one of the most difficult times of my life. I needed wisdom to compliment what I’d learned.

I learned a few things that summer. Knowledge is to be used for glorifying God. My bad relationship with God had caused me to miss out on the fruits of the Spirit. I needed patience and gentleness more than anything. I learned that I didn’t always need to have something to say but more often needed to give somebody else my listening ear. All of this realization broke me as a Christian. I felt like I knew so much but couldn’t use any of it because whenever I spoke sin was near. I sat threw a mens group at my home Church in Sandy Oregon. Dover Community Church has a general age group of about 35-80. In the mens group I was the youngest man by 13 years. We went through the book of Proverbs which is thick wisdom literature. These guys were so funny because i would yuck up theology with them and they never wanted to argue with me. They just listened and smiled. I often got compliments for my knowledge and that built my pride (not virtuous). I remember sitting and talking about humility. All of these men showed me what humility was that summer. I felt like the process of true wisdom started in my life at that point. I’m still painfully going through that process as I write this blog.

I went back to school the next semester and felt the need to put wisdom into practice. People noticed some change in me but inside I felt like pretty much the same guy they avoided the semester before. I did notice that freshmen would listen to me and receive what I would have to say as good advice. This is when what I call my “Daddy Syndrome” came into play. I wanted to be everybody’s Dad and give them fatherly advice. Right, like that 19 year old had the wisdom it takes to be a good father. I loved talking to new students because they were so naive as to what I had to say. One day my friend Billy Hague brought me up into his room to hang out. It ended up being just him and me in the room talking about dorm relationships. I think I’ll remember this discussion for a long time. Billy had the guts to tell mister “knows everything” (me) to stop being foolish with my words (synopsis). I got rebuked and I am very thankful in hind sight. Since that conversation I’ve done a lot of pondering as to why I do what I do.

I realized that by nature I’m a really aggressive person. I like to incite action often. I than always look for reaction. Also when action is incited toward me I like to react to that action. Wisdom is so ingrained in the whole theory of action and reaction. I realized the time I took between thinking and action was really short. I also realized the same for the time it took me between thinking and reaction. The foolish man thinks, then acts to quickly when that quickness isn’t necessary. This is the whole root to my argumentative problem. I always act and react to quick. There is no time for knowledge to process when I act and react to quickly.

Now you readers may be confused as to what I’m getting at right now. First, this story is nowhere close to being done. Just because I had that realization doesn’t mean I’ve put it into perfect practice. It just means I have less integrity when I screw up now. Thanks The Lord for his grace on that one. Second, I want all of you to ponder all of this. When talking about divisive issues how do you handle yourself? When you see other people like me, what is your interaction with them? I challenge you to take people like me aside and give them a gentle rebuke. That would be the most loving thing to do. Finally, most of this foolishness plays itself out practically in me being the theological elitist I talked about. I am slowly trying to kill the elitist inside of me. Nobody enjoys a relationship with a person where that that person selfishly holds themself above everybody else. My professor Jay Held once said, “More people fear admitting they are wrong in public than being nude in a public area.” I have a hard time admitting I’m wrong. My best friends are the ones who let me admit I’m wrong and still love me afterwards. It’s people like that who let me change. Join me in killing the elitist within. If you’re not an elitist than gently rebuke those who are so they are thrown into the same process I’m in. Let’s all find wisdom by stepping back and observing the little reactions we have with people through out the day.

On Episode 2 of “Action and Reaction: Wisdom Found Through Stepping Back“. I tell the story of sophomore year to the present dealing with Theological elitism. I deal with doing ministry and having this problem. I also deal with being the theological elitist inside a Bible College classroom setting. Stay tuned for my next blog on “Dating Dynamics on a Bible College Campus Ep 2“. Your comments are encouraged.

Gabriel Stice

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