Not What You Know but Who You Know

I come from a family that values learning, but not necessarily institutional education. College was feared more than valued. Of 26 cousins, only 5 of us graduated from college. I think the fear came from watching so many young people from various churches ‘lose their faith’ as they went to college. So is being educated a bad thing? What happened to the 5 of us who went?

Seminaries are scary to me. I have watched so many go through seminary and come out believing less in Jesus Christ and the work he did here on earth than they did going in. What about seminaries does this to people?

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John 5:39-40

The secret is in these words Jesus spoke about himself while discussing with the religious leaders why he chose to heal on the Sabbath. He made it very clear that study of the Scripture is not enough. If you could memorize the Bible from one end to the other, it would not be enough. In the end, it is not about how much you know, but Who you know!

The Scriptures are there to point us to God and let us know how much God cares about us and loves us. They are there to show us how God interacts with the world and its people. What God really desires from us is relationship. He wanted relationship with Adam and Eve – “Where are you?” he said when they hid after eating the forbidden fruit. He wanted relationship with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He wanted relationship with Joseph, Samuel, Saul and David. He wanted relationship with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. Those who chose to respond to God’s invitation to relationship did amazing things. They lived their lives with a capital LIVE!

That does not mean that they had cushy lives of luxury. It seems the closer they were to God, the more willing they were to risk their lives. Abraham left all his wealth and status and set out to begin a new nation. Joseph left the comfort of his family (via his brothers’ violence) to enter the training camp of slavery and prison before becoming 2^nd only to Pharaoh and saving several tribes and nations from starving to death during a famine. David faced Goliath and many battles after that with confidence that God would give him the victory. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah experienced persecution as they spoke out loud what God was telling them about the future of the nation of Israel and of the world.

All of these ‘stand outs’ in the Old Testament Scriptures were seeking after God with all their hearts, minds, souls and strength. Come to think of it, Jesus own words confirm what he wants from us. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

If we don’t get the relationship part with God through Jesus Christ, none of the Scripture will be enough. It will just be words that we discuss, argue, believe or don’t believe, teach or ignore. In the end, college and seminary can’t make or break the relationship. It may point out the lack of faith that is already there. Many young people are simply going through the motions taught to them by their parents. They haven’t built their own relationship with God. Being in an intellectual environment may cause us to examine ourselves and test our faith, but it doesn’t give or take away our faith. Our faith is based on relationship. If we are developing a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, that will stay with us whether we fill our heads with more knowledge or not. Knowledge can be useful, but it can’t replace relationship.

So to answer the question about what happened to the 5 of us who went to college… We pretty much came out with our faith that we went in with. It may have been more defined. We may have looked at other beliefs on the way through, but if we had a relationship with God going in, we had one coming out. I had no fear sending our children off to college. They understood relationship with God. My confidence was in God – not in how many hours my children had spent in Sunday School or how much Scripture they had memorized.