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“Somebody said that if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”


A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book. Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 21). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We want so much to impress other people.  To show them that we are the smartest but in reality that is a waste of time.  The key is to learn, to be challenged to grow not for us to impress or to bring others down.

John spent some time with Dallas Willard who was a philosophy professor at the University of Southern California and a great Christian writer.  Dallas told him that, “Toward the end of one of his philosophy classes a student raised an objection that was both insulting toward Dallas and clearly wrong. Instead of correcting him, Dallas gently said that this would be a good place to end the class for the day. Afterward, a friend approached Dallas: ‘Why did you let him get away with that? Why didn’t you demolish him?’ Dallas replied, ‘I was practicing the discipline of not having to have the last word.’”

Dallas also said, “Being right is actually a very hard burden to be able to carry gracefully and humbly. That’s why nobody likes to sit next to the kid in class who’s right all the time. One of the hardest things in the world is to be right and not hurt other people with it.”

Is it important to you to show people how smart you are?
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