YAKEs

Don Miller | Aug 4 2020.

Yakes to parents are “Young Adults who (think they) Know Everything” –often their own kids. Oakes to parents are “Older Adults who actually do Know Everything”, i.e.: themselves.

Oakes look on Yakes with great compassion and secret smiles; they know the poor little Yakes have no idea what they are talking about even when the unfortunate ignorant Yakes are beaming pride over the wisdom of their fine words and earth-shaking wisdom. How could the world have gotten on without them??

I had an experience with a budding Yake, NB, over the weekend. We were gliding through some mind-bending scenery in Zion National Park when our van full of Yakes and 2 Oakes spotted a quite majestic full-horned mountain goat twenty feet from us. After oohs and ahhhh’s, young NB Yake–who’d never seen one mountain goat in his life–informed me that we’d surely see many more. In the excellence of my seasoned wisdom, I informed him that we wouldn’t; that it was a rarity to ever see one this close to a road. Young Yake assured me he was right and I was wrong. I smiled; poor ignorant little Yake.

Well…uh…ummm…freaky fate didn’t do me any favors that day. We rounded half-a-dozen corners and there were 12 Mountain Goats (who never get close to a road) strolling along the side of the road, 7 feet from our car!

Geesh. I’ll never live that one down. I got lots of Yake-strutting over that one and young NB Yake even bought a Mountain Goat sticker to commemorate his triumph!

Truth be told, we’re all Yakes and we’re all Oakes. There is always someone younger than us who doesn’t own the vastness of our wisdom and experience; and, there is always someone older and wiser who laughs inside at some of our very wise conclusions.

Luke 18:14 has something for all of us; “He who humbles himself will be exalted.”

When God exalts a person in one of a million ways, that person has a wider sphere of influence to use for wonderful good with the help of the God of Creation. God makes being exalted for the good of others happen when we humble ourselves deeply before Him and others. AND…I think a BIG part of that is knowing that we can’t do anything of value apart from Him helping us.

So smile on the Yakes when you’ve got some in your midst who truly know everything. And pray that God would help you bring Himself to them in fresh new ways. And keep amazingly humble; God has surprising ways of using Yakes and humble Oakes to bless many.