Lots of things in life are self-directed: how much you eat, how much you rest, how you exercise, the way you use your time, the way you relate to others, volunteer, choose your vocation etc.
So why don’t we release learners to find out what they need and provide an environment where they can make a plan on how they will get it? Instead we tell them that the programme will deliver what they need, that it is the professionals’ job to put that together and really all the rank and file can do is approve the plan and later complain.
It is not selfish to decide what you need. It is not selfish to search out others with whom you can network. It is not selfish to count the risk and take coherent steps to participate in the Kingdom’s expansion around us.
It is selfish to expect others to figure this out for you, or “make” you do it, or have them do all the work so that the programme can happen. It is also impossible, frustrating and terribly limiting.
It is time to release learners to sacrificial self-direction. To those who much has been given, much will be expected. Surely we are the generation that has received the most resources from God. What are we doing with it?