I took my son back to college today. If I'm honest, I have to admit to being envious of his opportunity to spend the day studying subjects that are of interest to him, and even the opportunity to study some subjects of less than thrilling import. I took a short stroll through the library- sorry, the learning resource center- and thought of how enjoyable it would be to spend days in the stacks. (I was looking for back issues of the Journal of Early Christian Studies, and they have them! Time to pay my son more visits.) I recall my own days as a student fondly, and I'm sure with a great deal of fuzziness over just how hard the work was then.
Many Christians find academia dull, intimidating, and perhaps even slightly heretical. The fear of academics is likely due to the number of people, famous and otherwise, whose stories of "falling away" during their college and even seminary years breed sorrow in the heart. There certainly is a temptation for the academically-minded to place a desire to be novel and to interest their peers above fidelity to God and His Word, but there are also strong, brilliant minds pursuing scholarship with a fervent grasp of the ultimate truth. Like anything else, scholarship can be misused and twisted to draw the soul away from Jesus, but it does not have to be so.
I think my study here is a reaction to my envy of my son's studies. Here is where I can go back into the library (I still haven't wrapped my tongue around the whole learning resource center" thing) and study with passion and interest those subjects that pique my interest. I hope this pursuit spurs you on to your own study, your own scholarship, and that most of all our studies will lead us into the truth of God.
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