I'm glad I've had these couple days on the Bryan campus. It's been healthy to see what college education can be. I am happy at St. Olaf and 105% confident that's where God wants me right now. But I had developed a notion that I could never be happy studying anything else but music. Maybe not.
I think my religion class (a social science class at St. Olaf), my awareness of the pointlessness of the coursework of my friends in other fields because of postmodernism, and my superficial conversations have made me forget how noble other fields of study can be, when done right, done well, done for the glory of God and as an expression of vocation and the imago Dei.
Yesterday I attended a class on Lewis and Tolkien, full of stimulating, thoughtful, substantive, truth-seeking discussion among the students and intelligent guidance and pastoral exhortation from the professor. This morning I attended chapel--one of the best reflections of the nature and purpose of suffering I have ever heard. At noon I joined David in his physics class and to my surprise enjoyed every moment of it. I was amazed at how much I remembered from ninth grade and how well my mind worked to take in everything the professor said even though it was such a foreign field of study to me. I realized I could throw my heart into any field of study, really.
It's been a fun few days and I'm glad to have experienced the delight of exploring so many things again, something I haven't done for almost five years. I think there's a safety in keeping this in mind; an insurance that I'll always be content whatever God puts in front of me. And once again I smile to hope that I'll get to do "school" all over again someday as I teach my own kids. Perhaps then I'll learn physics and chemistry and algebra better than I did before, and enjoy biology for once.
It's the exercise of the mind in pursuing truth that I love so much. Music happens to be the most natural expression of that for me. But any expression of it is noble and delightful. It's the utilitarian, career-minded, superficial, humanistic, atheistic, self-centered "college education" for which I have no appreciation or patience. But Bryan is engaged in the high calling of education, just another fulfillment of their motto: "Christ Above All."
I think my religion class (a social science class at St. Olaf), my awareness of the pointlessness of the coursework of my friends in other fields because of postmodernism, and my superficial conversations have made me forget how noble other fields of study can be, when done right, done well, done for the glory of God and as an expression of vocation and the imago Dei.
Yesterday I attended a class on Lewis and Tolkien, full of stimulating, thoughtful, substantive, truth-seeking discussion among the students and intelligent guidance and pastoral exhortation from the professor. This morning I attended chapel--one of the best reflections of the nature and purpose of suffering I have ever heard. At noon I joined David in his physics class and to my surprise enjoyed every moment of it. I was amazed at how much I remembered from ninth grade and how well my mind worked to take in everything the professor said even though it was such a foreign field of study to me. I realized I could throw my heart into any field of study, really.
It's been a fun few days and I'm glad to have experienced the delight of exploring so many things again, something I haven't done for almost five years. I think there's a safety in keeping this in mind; an insurance that I'll always be content whatever God puts in front of me. And once again I smile to hope that I'll get to do "school" all over again someday as I teach my own kids. Perhaps then I'll learn physics and chemistry and algebra better than I did before, and enjoy biology for once.
It's the exercise of the mind in pursuing truth that I love so much. Music happens to be the most natural expression of that for me. But any expression of it is noble and delightful. It's the utilitarian, career-minded, superficial, humanistic, atheistic, self-centered "college education" for which I have no appreciation or patience. But Bryan is engaged in the high calling of education, just another fulfillment of their motto: "Christ Above All."
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