Soul Fixation: School

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not the most consistent blogger. I post regularly, but I'm terrible at keeping up with series that I begin. Oftentimes weeks will pass before I update one of my actual series on the good 'ol blog (most of my posts fall under the 'The Randoms' category), and there are various reasons for this. Sometimes it's unintentional, my inconsistency simply being a product of a chaotic life. Sometimes it's intentional, a post being put off until I'm sure I am able to input an adequate amount of energy and thought into it's content or out of a heart that needs a break to avoid blogging out of legalism. Sometimes inconsistency is a good thing, because sometimes it's spirit-led. Intentional inconsistency? That's ironic.

Today I am continuing in the series Soul Fixation, an event largely overdue. I am sorry for the delay (good bloggers are supposed to be consistent, apparently). Consistency is an attribute that I'd like to maintain again. When I began this blog a couple of years ago I was quite consistent, sticking to a series after I'd begin it. Lately I've been publishing more spur-of-the-moment posts, which are quite fun for me but are probably a bit of an annoyance to those who wish I'd simply stick with the series that I begin. So again, I apologize, and I promise to try better at being consistent and less sporadic (though some spontaneity will exist, because I like it).

Anyway. Onward.

The goal of this series is to fixate. The area of my life that I focused on was school, which I took this past week to reflect on and pray about, aiming for fixed eyes on Christ in regards to academics.

I thought that God was going to teach me some divine truth about knowledge, or perhaps He'd help me with time management skills or remind my soul of the importance of being diligent or doing everything, even the small things, to His glory. I was prepared to learn about knowledge. Instead, God taught me about wisdom.

We often don't distinguish between the two, but I whole-heartedly believe there is a difference.

A couple of years ago I published the following post: Knowledge vs Wisdom. In it, I discuss the difference between the two. I won't regurgitate all of the content that I published, but I do want to focus on one truth mentioned in that post, one truth that God reminded me of this week: God has given us guidelines for wisdom in His Word.

As we travel through life we learn. We make mistakes, we learn lessons. Pain isn't the only teacher, but oftentimes it's a good one. We live out a situation, either making beneficial or detrimental choices, and as we continue on we know how to handle a similar situation the next time it presents itself. As we live through life we better understand how to navigate the world, and this is the definition of knowledge. Putting this knowledge into practice is taking it one step further, and this is the definition of wisdom.

Life is a good teacher, this much is true. However, living is not the only way to acquire wisdom. Another way is perhaps a simpler way, to merely read the Scriptures.

To take it back to the Bible.

God has given us guidelines for wisdom in His Word, in the books of Proverbs, James, Ecclesiastes, and many others, so that in this life we don't have to mess up to find the knowledge in wisdom, but rather we can be proactive and use the wisdom from the Bible to avoid messy situations.

We will mess up, being fallen and flesh filled. At the same time, much hurt and pain can be avoided by merely reading the Bible and taking God at His word, by believing in His promises and soaking in His wisdom. When we have questions about life, it's good to seek wise counsel but it's also good if not better to merely read the Scriptures and see what truth is found within the pages.

Sometimes life gets blurry and confusion arises, or at least that's how I've been feeling in my own life lately. As I was talking this over with a close friend tonight I was reminded that the answers to a lot of my confusion were right there in front of me, the solution was quite easy: open up my Bible. God had shown me the answers in the past and they hadn't changed since then. My friend spoke much truth to me that was simple, biblical truth, and as I listened and thanked her I also thanked God, for giving us His wisdom in His word before we even knew we would need it.

And really, when you break it down to it's most simplified state, going back to the Bible is simply going back to love, which is woven into every Biblical story.

For my major I read scripture all the time. I literally read the Bible for homework. I don't want to simply read the Bible, though. I want to dwell on the Scriptures, to thrive on the truth. I want to soak it in, seeing the story of grace, love, and beauty written with each word. I want to apply it to my life. I want to live it out and love it more with each reading.

School is a blessing to be sure and I can't even explain how much I'm loving being a Biblical Text major at ACU right now. However, the lesson to be shared tonight is this: I could learn all about Christianity, the Church, and all the fancy words and concepts (hermeneutics, eschatology, I feel so smart), but if I graduated with all of this knowledge and failed to grow in my understanding of wisdom, then all of the knowledge would probably just be wasted. What is knowledge without living it out? Above all else is this: the fear (respect, understanding of overwhelming incomprehension) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Understanding God's character, His very nature of love, will humble me enough to push knowledge aside to make room for wisdom.

I believe that wisdom and love are attached at the hip, intertwined from the beginning until the end. What is knowledge, without wisdom, and similarly what is knowledge without love?

'Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up'. -1 Corinthians 8:1