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One person I have been inspired by throughout my life is Thomas Edison. He was most known for being the person who gave widespread availability to the light bulb and electricity in general, though he invented numerous other things as well. When he was searching for what to use as the filament in the light bulb, he tried thousands of different materials. At one point during this process, Edison was asked if he was frustrated by his lack of results. Edison replied, “Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward.”

How often do we look at life that way? Instead, we normally think that the only way to move forward is to gain more knowledge. If you don’t know the right answer yet, such as Edison not knowing what would be the best filament for the light bulb, we’re told that we haven’t achieved what we’re supposed to. After all, knowledge is power, right? Not necessarily.

I grew up going to a Christian school five days a week, Sunday School on Sundays, and church every weekend. Having religion class every day from preschool through the 12th grade meant I gained lots and lots of knowledge about the Bible. I was regularly quizzed and tested on that knowledge, as it was part of school for me. But what good is all that knowledge by itself? None.

Knowledge by itself is useless if you don’t have a way to put it to good use. Even if I knew every word of the Bible backwards and forwards, it would be totally useless if I didn’t truly know the person that it’s all about - Jesus Christ. Without having a personal relationship with Jesus, having the Holy Spirit in my heart, and allowing God to work in my life on a daily basis, the knowledge I can gain from the words of the Bible are meaningless. Once I have that relationship with God, all of the knowledge in the Bible becomes powerful in learning how to live out that relationship and sharing it with others.

We often fail at making a relationship with God the king of our lives. But every experience that happens to us and every choice that we make, even making 10,000 wrong ones, are not failure; instead, they are simply a step forward drawing us closer to the Truth.

What kind of knowledge do you have in your life?