It’s back to school time! I don’t care how old I get, I’m always going to love the excitement that this season brings–the prospect of all the new things… learning new and fascinating ideas, making new friends, and relishing in the joy of new lunch boxes, freshly sharpened pencils, and colorful new folders. (I love school supplies!)
I’m quite sure I was not as excited about going back to school when I was a child. What kid wants to lose the sweet, summertime freedom of late bedtimes and playing all day? And then of course there are always subjects that kids have a particular distaste for–math or science or reading….every kid has his or her least favorite. Did you ever ask your mother or your teacher, “Why do I have to learn this?” or, “When am I ever going to use this in real life?” I could answer that question with 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” For a Christian, that should be enough to motivate me to study hard and do my best, right? But still, the question tugs at us, “Why? Why do I have to learn this?“
Only as I’ve gotten older have I realized that question actually reveals a wrong attitude about learning. First of all, it reveals a utilitarian perspective toward learning. Is education strictly for the purpose of learning things I can use? Do I attend school just so that I can get a good job someday? What about learning simply for the sake of learning? What about gaining new knowledge and ideas so that I can be a more well-rounded, thoughtful human being? Secondly, if I believe that God created the world and everything in it, then I have to believe that God created math, science, reading, and every other subject or idea I could study. Studying what God has created helps me know more about God Himself and helps me grow in awe and wonder of Him.
For example, did you ever think about the fact that the only reason there could even be the concept of infinity in math is because God Himself is infinite? Or how the patterns, sequences and logic of math confirm what the scriptures teach us about God being a God of order and not chaos? When we write a story or paint a picture, we are able to do so because God is creative and made us to be creative too. When we study the laws of physics that keep our planet spinning or the details of biology that make up all our bodily systems, we can stand in awe of the fact that God took such care and paid such close attention to even the tiniest of particles to design us and our world. How He must care about us! How wondrously wise He must be!
There is so much to learn about our world and about God that learning shouldn’t end just because we graduated from school or because we’ve gotten older. It’s never too late to learn something new! Perhaps you can learn a new word each day or a new fact about geography. Maybe you can learn to garden or learn to paint. I believe it brings joy to God when we use the minds He gave us to explore the world He made.
On September 26, 1642, the founders of Harvard College in the Rules and Precepts at Harvard stated, “Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him (Proverbs 2, 3).”