by Brandon Reed

If C.S. Lewis suddenly appeared in your room, what questions would you ask him? Would you be at a loss for words or be anxiously at the ready with a barrage of questions?

Unfortunately, I would argue that most of us would fall into the first category. Most men today don’t know how to approach their elders with respect for the bodies of knowledge they carry with them.

As gentlemen in this modern day, we have largely lost something that has been so central to the centuries of gentlemen who have gone before us. We have lost the eagerness with which we seek out counsel from those who are older and wiser than us.

We've lost the eagerness to seek out counsel from those older and wiser than us. Click To Tweet

This doesn’t always mean that one must be our elder to be wiser than us. And it certainly doesn’t mean that all who are older than us have more wisdom. But…it does mean that we have a responsibility to at the very least approach our elders with respect. Once we learn to do this, we can begin to understand what it means to learn from the wisdom they have gained through their experiences and decisions.

If C.S. Lewis did, in fact, appear in your room today, my hope would be that you would, first, show a great amount of respect and admiration for the way in which he lived his life and what he gave the world through his work, and second, be eager to ask him all you could in your time with him so as to learn as much as possible from his great amount of wisdom.

I fear that a great many men today would be ill-equipped at best, or apathetic at worst, in the opportunity to learn from such a good and wise man.

Fine gentleman, this is not how we are to carry ourselves.

We are to show reverence and respect for our elders. We are to learn from those who have experienced what we are yet to experience, and lived the situations we are yet to know anything of.

And of course, this respect is not only to be given to gentlemen such as C.S. Lewis, but to any person, man or woman, who has lived with integrity, with character, and with honor. I’m willing to bet that many of you reading this can think of at least 1 or 2 people in your life who you would place into this category. Your father, your grandmother, your pastor, your mentor.

Regardless of who it is in your life who you would classify as an elder you respect and can learn from, I want to challenge you today in that relationship.

The very next opportunity you get to speak with them, I want you to be prepared to do 2 things.

  1. I want you to be prepared to genuinely thank them for living their lives with integrity and setting such a desperately needed example to the world of what it means to be a man or woman of character. Articulate to them the ways in which that example has directly impacted you and the man you have become. This is a wonderful way you can show them respect and can honor them.
  2. Be prepared with 3 questions you have never asked them before. Ensure that they are questions with substance and that have the opportunity to give you something you can tangibly take away from the conversation. Ask them about family, about faith, about love, about relationship, about risk, about money, about anything that you know you have much to learn (which if you are being honest, you young gentlemen, is in just about every area). Asking them questions like this will honor them by allowing them to see that you respect the wisdom they have to share and that you value what it is they have learned in and through the experiences they have had in their lives. There is no greater gift that either party could give the other.

I hope this article has challenged you not only to identify those in your lives who have wisdom to share, but also that it encourages you to seek that wisdom out. Our world is in desperate need of men and women who are actively learning from those who have gone before us.

Our world is in desperate need of men and women who are actively learning from their elders. Click To Tweet

So gentlemen, let us lead the way in that pursuit. Let us be the first to reach out. Let us be the first honor our elders. Let us be the men who display an example of humility by admitting that we have much to learn.

So go, fine gentlemen. Go and seek out the wisdom around you. Go and learn. Go and lead.

Until Soon,

Brandon Reed
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