A Ramble About Career Students

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)

There comes a point in time when you just have to put your Bible down; your Bible, your devotionals, your study guides, all of it. There comes a point in time when you have to stop hiding behind the facade of learning about your faith, and start doing what your faith says to do. It is good to memorize scripture in order to keep your mind focused on where it belongs. It isn't good to continuously study on the pretext of learning something “more”.

There are people who attend college with a certain goal, a vocation, in mind. They go, they get their education, and then they go on to be teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers, and so on. Then there are people who attend college to learn and because they're afraid of life, and then once they graduate, attend still more college and become career students. They don't enter the outside world because they're fascinated by learning more, but even more because they're afraid of the outside world and doing what it is they've been taught to do.

There are too many professed Christians who do the same thing. “Getting in the Word”, going to church, and going to Bible study groups are all about remaining in the classroom without having to actually employ what it is they learn there. There is a time and a place for the classroom, and the classroom mentality, but we weren't meant to never venture outside of it.

The gathering of the faithful to worship on Sunday mornings (or whatever time and day of the week it may be) is just that; a time to worship and remember the Covenant God made with us through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is a time to gather together as the body, worshiping together as the body of Christ. Quite frankly, it isn't necessarily a time for yet more basic classroom instruction, and yet too often this is what it has devolved into to the point where the worship and remembrance has taken a back seat to between 30 and 60 minutes of theological exposition and speculation by the minister (typical service: fifteen minutes of hymns, five minutes of announcements, forty-five minutes of sermon, Holy Communion once a month).

There comes a point in time when you have to step outside of the classroom and use what you have learned instead of hiding in the classroom. What good is a soldier who never ventures into combat? What good is a farmer who never works his fields? What good is a doctor who has never diagnosed a patient?

The Bible itself is a tool. It cannot do the work of discipleship for you. The Bible is, at the end of the day, a printed book which carries a message. The message must be internalized and put into practice or else reading it cover to cover repeatedly, studying it in minute detail, and memorizing it word for word will do you no good.

At the end of the day, if it doesn't lead you back to Jesus, even studying the Bible is for nothing.