Many kids groan about giving up their languid summer days and having to sit in classes at school. I get it. But sometimes, we can take what a blessing education and knowledge are for granted. Learning plays an integral role to flourishing in life. Here are a few thoughts on growing closer to God, growing as a person, and enjoying life through learning.
1. God is Worth Learning About
The Apostle Paul states several times that he is praying for the Colossian Church that they might continue “growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). After twenty years of marriage, my wife and I know a few more things about each other and have grown to enjoy each other more deeply. Relating to God is very similar.
Marvelously, God desires that we know more of him—that is literally why he made us. He created us with an eternal craving to desire him infinitely. That requires knowledge, revelation, commitment, and shared experiences over the terrain of time. And because God is virtuous, loving, compassionate, honest, and good, he is totally attractive. The more we learn about him, and the more we share life with him, the closer we grow to him, the more desirable he becomes.
2. There is Beauty in Learning—in God
As the Creator of all things, God supplies everything with its order, meaning, and beauty. “From him and through him and for him are all things” (Romans 11:36). So, naturally, when we understand the connection of all things to the Meaning-Maker, we appreciate them as an expression of that Great Artist’s logic and design. And because God is beautiful in all his perfections, he has endowed a certain elegance and beauty in the logic of his created world.
My family had recently watched an hour-long presentation on exotic reptiles. There is something wonderful about sitting at the feet of someone who “knows so much” and can unveil mysteries in the world. Come and sit at the feet of Solomon for a moment and capture the wonder of his insight:
“God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore…He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish…From all nations, people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom” (1 Kings 4:29,34).
3. Learning is Essential to Health and Prosperity
You don’t want to live in ignorance. People lose their jobs or marriages because of a lack of understanding. They die from health problems they didn’t know existed. Bells bust, and bridges break because we didn’t engineer them accurately. Conversely, our lives are enriched by the everyday experiences we have and the knowledge we acquire. Hopefully, you learn how to cook a meal your family thoroughly enjoys, or learn to play an emotionally inspiring movement of Bach from your piano, or how to attract exotic birds to come feast at your feeder.
Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power,” not in a cynical political way, but in a way that reveals the world we live in so that we can know how to live wisely. To grow trees, mold metal, purify water, harness energy, express ourselves in language, make a perfect espresso, tell captivating stories, raise our children, or gaze at the stars through our telescopes.
4. We Should Hunger to Learn
God wants us to grow and expand our minds. Learn. Serve him with our passions and our thinking. The proverb says, “wise people store up knowledge” (10:14). The Apostle Paul wanted the Philippian’s love to increase in “knowledge and depth of insight” (Philippians 1:9-10).
Listen to how God inspired and enabled master craftsmen to use their abilities to beautify and train others:
And (God) has given both (Bezalel) and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.
5. Cultures are a Storage of Knowledge
Cultures are a collective storage of learning, wisdom, art, justice, technology, and ethics that are considered valuable to people across time. God clearly warns against learning and practicing the “detestable ways of the nations” (Deuteronomy 18:9). He is forbidding explicitly immoral behavior. But we also see that Moses was instructed to “Teach (the people) God’s decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave” (Exodus 18:20).
The Bible, for example, is a storage tank of collective spiritual revelation to the Jewish people across centuries. Likewise, science is the ongoing accumulation of natural explanations of the world that have proven trustworthy over time. Our technological developments in Western Civilization are built on scientific foundations laid centuries ago. Our Western tradition has preserved a catalog of literature, art, and wisdom from the greatest civilizations in history. These arts and humanities grapple with fidelity, suffering, mortality, courage, humanity, liberty, forgiveness, etc. As individuals, we benefit from this collective wisdom to the degree that we immerse ourselves in it and maintain it. These are valuable, and they make us more thoughtful people who don’t just do the right things but understand why.
6. Employ Your Mind For God
Your mind is a powerful tool with which to worship God, flourish on the earth, bless your community, and enjoy your life. “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright” (Proverbs 2:6-7). A thirst for God and for exploring the wonders of his vast and wonderful world is at the center of life and worship. Keep learning. Keep growing. And keep exploring his beautiful, magical, wonderful world.
Tags: truth, wisdom, science, art, beauty, discover, revelation, teach, insight, understanding, wise, civilization, learning, knowledge, flourishing, interesting
