The Rustic Seeks Learning

There was a rustic who lived on the outskirts of the kingdom and who had gone to the big city to learn how to better serve the King. He found in the King's manual that he should become a learner. So he set out to find someone who would help him with this.

The first group he found was eager to help. They said, "You need to join a learners' group. Then you go through the lessons, and eventually you become a learner leader and start your own group."

The rustic picked up the lessons and looked through them. They were a fairly limited selection of what was in the King's manual. "What about all the rest of the stuff in the manual?" he asked.

"What we have in the lessons is the important stuff. The rest, people can learn on their own."

"But doesn't the manual say we should obey all things the King demanded? And how can you decide which stuff in the manual is important?" The rustic left them busily discussing things between themselves.

When he asked the next group, they told him, "If you join our group and come to our meetings,  you will be a learner of the King."

"Then will you teach me what I need to know to be a learner of the King?" replied the rustic.

"Well, if you come to our meetings you will learn about the King."

"But do you have a plan to teach me the things I need to know to be the King's learner?"

"Not really, but if you come to our meetings and activities, you should learn them eventually."

The rustic walked away.

The third group told him, "What you need is spiritual gifts." Now some said that if you prayed to the King in faith, He would give you any of the gifts. The other side said that each person only had certain gifts and could tell what it was by taking their gifts' test.

"Is this gift test in the King's manual?" the rustic asked the latter.

"The gifts are, but the actual test is based on our experience," they replied.

The rustic asked all of them, "If I get the gifts down, will you teach me how to be the King's learner?"

"If we can get the gifts working," they replied, "then we will all know how to be the King's learners."

The gifts sounded like valuable things, and they were in the manual. But the rustic had to wonder if it was quite that simple.

The rustic walked away, thinking. The King had said to teach His learners to obey all that He had commanded them. (He had also said to be baptized, but the rustic felt that was included in "all things." Strange nobody had mentioned it.) The one group that had a plan had an abridged version of "all things." The others did not seem to have a plan. There must be someone who was doing better than that. The rustic decided to keep looking.