Haven’t Learned That Yet

Shauna Niequist recounts a big transition in her life when she and her family moved from the suburbs of Illinois to New York City. Her kids felt behind at school. She kept making mistakes like getting too many groceries to walk home with or getting off the subway at the wrong stop. Instead of beating themselves up for not being immediate experts, they adopted a family mantra, written and posted on the wall that said, “I guess I haven’t learned that yet.” Niequist explains, “I wrote that sentence because I wanted us to have a common language for what it means to be a learner, a beginner, to be curious and make mistakes and get back up. To ask questions and figure it out as we go” (Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022],8). We are in the long game of growing up in Christ. When there are times that are confusing or downright hard, might we remember that we, too, are works in progress, that the fullness of God’s work in our lives is still in process, and maybe he is teaching us something that we haven’t learned yet?