You’re Killing Me Smalls!

My biggest pet peeve is willful ignorance. Willful ignorance is the conscience decision to not take the time to learn or gain knowledge about something that you should know. Every person has areas of ignorance. No matter how smart you may be, there are always holes in our knowledge, things we don’t know and have yet to learn.

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

Willful ignorance however is different. It is the unwillingness to learn because we find comfort in our lack of knowledge. Gaining knowledge might require us to act (If I learn how to cook, I will be expected to make dinner from time to time and I would rather someone else do it for me). Learning may make us have to change our thinking (Don't confuse my well held strong opinions with the facts). Being informed might require some effort and we are just too lazy for that. Willful ignorance puts our burdens on others, and allows us to enjoy our enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

“The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriosity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is”

Stephen Fry

When it comes using our computer, doing the laundry, or holding on to that old wives tales, our choosing willful ignorance may not make that big of a deal, but when it comes to the word of God it does. Refusal to see the truth in the Bible and understand its meaning can affect us greatly! Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15 that the scriptures “are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”. Choosing to ignore the word of God won’t just make us foolish; it will leave us lost in sin. Nothing is more difficult than to try to reason from scripture with someone that is purposefully ignorant of what God says. Rather than read and obey, they chose to ignore and remain lost.

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

Abraham Lincoln

Don’t fall into this trap. I tremble to think of the people that will find themselves lost in eternity because they refuse to learn the basic things God spelled out for them in his book. As the Prophet said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Never be the person that chooses not to know about God. God has things he wants you to know. He put them in his sacred writings. Don’t reject God by rejecting his knowledge!

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