Competence does not have to be directly related to education or smarts, but it is related to experience and attitude, and sometimes enhanced by inborn skills. Everyone can be competent with a determination to do the work right, persevere in learning, and an attitude that seeks to be the best before God.
That is why my eyes can tear up when I see a competent flag person directing traffic with a smile, standing upright, confident, not smoking or listening to music or texting, but consciously doing what they have been trained to do. You do not have to be a brain, doing a job that is highly respected by the world, making a lot of money, to be competent - just conscientious with a right attitude to please God in the task.
Around here I am severely malnourished in machine competence and oilfield knowledge because I lack experience. I have the right attitude and am willing to learn, but experience will take time. The way these men and women run their equipment fills me will humble amazement. If these people were brain surgeons I would have them do the operation, but they are "ho" operators, and "dozer" drivers, and "grader" drivers, and "heavy equipment mechanics", etc...
Reminds me of Hebrews 5.13-6.1, "For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefor ...let us press on to maturity".
We all need to train our senses to discern good and evil and to live in righteousness. I have a lot of spiritual experience to gain. I also have a lot of practical machine and oilfield experience to gain as well. Below are pictures of the three machines I am learning to drive. What are you learning spiritually and practically these days?
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| This is a Packer for making wet clay into a solid base for the next layer of soil. |
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| John Deere tractor with disking unit to break up big pieces of clay before the Packer pounds it solid. |
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| A roller Packer to finish and harden the final surface. This is the machine I am driving the most and am the most skilled in. I am also learning about how to use this machine with various soils and how to get the best results. |
Good post Ron! I have been appreciating your blogs. So true about experience leading to competence. When I was trying to learn to play bass guitar a few years ago, I felt just like you, totally incompetent, mostly because there was someone in the church who was a whiz on the guitar and I always felt like he didn't have much patience for my fumbling. But one day I thought, if he where behind the steering wheel of my semi truck the situation would be completely reverse., He would be the incompetent one because of his lack of experience. So keep at it! You will learn quickly and hopefully you have a good and patient foreman to help you out. Blessings, Mel
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