The best education

One of my high school teachers challenged me with, “You have to decide what education is best for you. Do you want to be a person who knows a great deal about one thing and nothing much about everything else? Or do you want to know a little about everything and nothing much in particular?”

I’m not consciously aware of picking either one, but I’m aware of the folly of both when taken to extremes. The first category can lead to being so focused on one field that one becomes almost dense in the area of common sense. The second extreme is skipping lightly through learning, picking up tidbits that work in Trivial Pursuit yet give no solid foundation for a career or any area of expertise.

Principles emerges from this challenge. I’ve realized that the more I know about one thing the more I realize how much I have yet to learn. Humility and godly character seem to be the more important areas for high marks that becoming a specialist. Also, no one can learn a little bit about everything. It’s far better to pick a few important subjects and focus. Each person should consider what is vital for a life well-lived, a life that has eternal value.

Paul was well-educated. He said to those who challenged him, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.” (Acts 22:3)

Rabban Gamaliel I was a leading teacher of the School of Hillel, one of two prominent Rabbinical schools in his time, Hillel and Shammai. Hillel gave students greater freedom allowing them to read Greek writers and learn beyond Jewish traditions. Today, it may have been designated ‘liberal arts’ rather than a ‘fundamental’ college. Paul’s education was helpful in the task God later gave him — to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. He understood their language and culture and was able to fit and connect wherever he went.

Of his education, Paul said, “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” (Galatians 1:14) Yet so powerful was the grace of God in his encounter with Jesus Christ that he changed course and became exceedingly powerful in teaching others about Him. People said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of him. (Galatians 1:23-24)

I choose to finish high school and go to work. My parents wanted me to take art courses, yet I now see that would have been a waste of time. I wound up married with three children and a husband whose work took us many places. Constant relocation would mess with any career choice for me and a family that needed my full attention. I did choose to learn about God — which turned out to be an inexhaustible topic I could study anytime and anywhere. Besides, He gives His students knowledge about how to live. It could not have been a better choice.

I find myself thinking that knowing the ways of God is key to knowing the ways of humanity. He understands us better than we understand ourselves. When I pay attention to Him, I learn more about the workings of my mind, motivations, and needs that I could ever learn in any course of formal education. I’m sure this is even more true of Paul.

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Dear Jesus, while I have diplomas on my wall and awards for high marks in my file drawer, there is no knowledge that comes even close to the value of knowing You. You are the key to all wisdom, the source of all knowledge. The details of creation amaze me because I know You as the Creator. The connections between the stuff of the universe form patterns and beauty because I know You as the One who made them and who holds all things together. You have given me friends who together form Your Body and become united with You and each another. You have given me abundant life, rich and full of joy even in trials. I could have a thousand degrees from a thousand schools of learning, but none of that compares to knowing You. Amen!

Grace that is greater than all my sin…

Grace, as it is used in the Bible, is a word not often heard. A preacher from nearly a century ago said this is because the word ‘sin’ is also disappearing from our vocabulary. As soon as that word is banished, the other one will not remain, for grace is the only antidote to sin.

The word ‘sin’ bites deep because sin bites deep. Like other unpleasant words, we create easier and less distressing euphemisms, words without teeth. Death is the common one. Instead we say ‘passed away’ or ‘gone to a better place’ and so on. ‘Divorced’ becomes ‘no longer together’ or ‘gone our separate ways.’ Cancer becomes that ‘c’ word among other things, in an attempt to avoid associated pain.

Sin is painful because it prevails in every part and is the root of all our troubles. If we don’t sin with our mouths, we do it in actions. If we don’t sin with our actions, we sin in our attitudes. Envy, malice and wrath can fill our thoughts, desires, and wills. Yet no one likes the word ‘sin’ and many give it other names to avoid using it.

Christianity does not do that. Its task is not to weaken the sense of sin but drive the bite deeply into every part. As today’s devotional reading says, there is no delicate way to describe the natural condition of my life. The Bible is clear and uncompromising; sin reigns in me. Apart from Christ, this horrid guest masters me, is my tyrant. I am dead in sin, not at all like a boat with power to drive through adverse winds and storms, but like a piece of driftwood with no self-initiative and self-direction, a “pitiless prey” of hostile wind and waves.

Christianity exposes the problem, but does not leave sinners without a solution. To my sin-burdened and sin-poisoned life flows the riches of God’s grace…

In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight... (Ephesians 1:7–8)

Grace fills my life with answers to the devastation of sin. Grace brings redemption, which is the power of liberation. I am set free from the slavery that before I had no ability or desire to resist.

Grace also brings wisdom, which is illumination from God, the ability to see sin as it is, but also to see the wonder of Jesus Christ and the joy of delighting of His grace.

Grace also brings understanding, which the Bible describes as a God-given enablement to apply the illumination He gives to the difficulties of my life. That is, when God reveals a sinful attitude in my heart, He also grants a way of escape so that I can overcome that sin, a way of escape that I understand. Whether the battle is won by a simple “no” or a much longer struggle, the victory is guaranteed, all because of grace.

How did I get here? How did I learn to know my sin and to hate it? How did I find this way of escape so sin has lost its bite and is no longer my master? The answer is in those verses from Ephesians. It is by being “In Jesus.” He is my abiding place, my source of redemption and wisdom. I have no other place to stand, but to be alongside my Savior, trusting and enjoying Him. He is the source of all that I need, and as these verses say, I am His redeemed and forgiven child and He lavishes the riches of His grace upon me.

The Source of Wisdom

Last week I tackled a project another person had started. She made a quilt top and wanted it sewn up as a duvet cover. I’d never made a duvet cover so essentially didn’t know what I was doing, so I prayed for wisdom.

After praying, I searched online for duvet cover instructions, and while what I found was not exactly what I was trying to do, I did get a few ideas. My biggest problem was how to close the opening. Buttons would not do because this was a baby’s duvet. Velcro didn’t seem like a good idea either. Then the idea popped into my head to use two zippers, two because it would be hard to find one lightweight zipper long enough. If I put the closed ends of the zippers toward the outside edges, they would open from the middle outward, be easy to manage, and create an uninterrupted enclosure for the opening to insert the duvet, one in which the baby could not entangle herself.

My first thought was, “Good idea, Elsie.” Immediately I corrected that. I’d prayed about this problem so needed to say, “Good idea, Lord” so I did.

My reading today is Proverbs 19:20. It says, “Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days.”

Even though this verse sounds like it, the educated person is not necessarily wise. In fact, I’ve met a few people that could almost be called ‘educated idiots’ because their degrees didn’t seem to affect their ability to make sound decisions in most areas of life. Wisdom isn’t something that comes just through knowing information. It is more than that.

A few years ago we were in an adult Sunday school class of a very large church. The people were randomly seated around small tables so we could discuss the lesson material. At our table were a few men with degrees in theology and one elderly lady who had very little education. English was not her first language and her clothing indicated that she did not have much money. However, she knew her Bible. As we talked, we were immediately aware that we were in the presence of a very wise woman. She received respect from everyone at the table.

In contrast, my devotional describes how I sometimes feel about my slowness to learn spiritual truth. I was quick in school and received high marks, but . . . “O what slow learners, what dull, forgetful scholars, what ignoramuses, what stupid blockheads, what stubborn pupils! Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learned of spiritual things after so many years’ instruction, so many chapters read, so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up, so much talking about religion.”

Yet as I read this and think about the woman in that Sunday class, I remember that true wisdom and the best education is about my relationship with God, not how smart I am or how quickly I learn. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says why:

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

As my reading today says, if I have Him, I have everything, and if I don’t have Him I have nothing. The wisdom of this world, including any A’s I might have received in formal education, is superficial and flimsy compared to what Jesus offers. Besides, I am far too quick to glory in myself. I continually need the Lord’s reminder to get my focus off me and on Him.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 does it. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”

The reason that soft-spoken woman was so wise had nothing to do with her education or lack of it. She was wise because she knew Jesus and she gloried in that knowledge. As she did, He gave her secrets about life and living that she didn’t learn in school, things only the wisdom of God could provide.