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The Lord gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding (Prov Introduction When I was a professor,
I had several opportunities to accompany the incoming freshman students in
their orientation retreat. Forty
students and me and another professor would go to a retreat center in a
beautiful mountain, spend three to four days together, eating and drinking,
doing a lot of fun stuff during the day, and talking and singing late into
the night. We held that freshman
retreat every year, before the classes started, to help make their transition
to the new university life easier and to help develop camaraderie among the
students within the department. On the
first night, we would sit in a circle after the dinner, and I as a faculty
advisor, would ask the students these questions: why did you come to college? What do you want to get from college? What do you want to do while in
college? We have two students
here graduating from high school this month: April and Jimmy. I would like to ask both of you the same
questions. In fact, I would like to
ask all of our high school students the same questions. Why are you guys going to college? What do you want to do in college? Of those of you who are parents, who will
send your children off to college this year or some day, I ask this question:
what do you want your children to acquire and do in college? Main Body 1. The wisdom, knowledge,
and understanding of the secular world There are always students
who come to college against their will, and there are also always students
who do not have a clue as to why they have come to college, except
“because everybody else is doing it.” But for most students that I have talked
with, their reason for coming to college was one of the following three: some
students go to college for a practical purpose. They want to acquire some knowledge to earn
a living with. Some go to college for
an academic purpose. They want to get
an understanding of the way the universe, the world, or the society
works. Others go to college for a more
noble purpose. They want to get wisdom
to discern things: they want to know what is good or evil, what is just or
unjust, etc. People go to college for
one of, or any combination of, three main purposes: for knowledge, for
understanding, or for wisdom. Of
course, these three purposes are not as distinct from one another as I have
made them out to look like. But they
are there. After the students have
revealed their reasons for coming to college, I would then tell them that all
these reasons are good reasons and that they should do their best to make
sure that they achieve and accomplish what they intended to. I would repeat the same
advice to you, April and Jimmy and the other students who will go to college
soon. After four years of college
education, you should come out of it, as a more knowledgeable person, a more
understanding person, and a wiser person.
With your increased knowledge, you should be able to make a decent
living. With your increased
understanding, you should be able to make more logical and rational decisions. And with your increased wisdom, you should
be able to live an ethically and morally more discerning life, and hopefully
a more meaningful life as well. For
these three purposes, you should roam widely, dig deeply, and ponder
continuously. In Korean, college is dae-haak. Literally, dae means “big,
great,” and haak
means “to learn” or “learning.” So, dae-haak means “learning (something) big” or
“great learning”, and indeed college is a place to learn great
things. I want you guys to learn great
things in college, I mean really great things, that
you have not been able to in high school.
Read widely and voraciously.
Learn from other people, and from other civilizations, through books
and through shoulder-to-shoulder interactions with people. Do not be bound by the four year
restriction; who said you should graduate in four years? Oftentimes, great learning cannot be boxed
in. Spend more time, if you have
to. But make sure something genuinely
great have happened to you before you graduate from college. By the time you graduate, you should feel
good about your practical knowledge of your specialization area, about your
general understanding of the ways things work in this world, and about your
discernment of what is good and what is evil, etc. That’s the advice that I used to give
to my incoming freshman students when I was a professor, and the same advice
I would like to give to you as well.
By all means, grow in your knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of the
world around you. Make sure you grow
in these three areas while in college!
But is that all that I
have to say? Is that all that you
should be concerned about in college?
I don’t think so. True,
all these are very important and very valuable, and that’s why I still
give you the same advice, but that is not all there is to college. When I gave my students
this advice, and only this advice, I was a nominal Christian. I had not been born again. I was living only the life of the flesh. There was no real spiritual component in my
life, even though I had been doing all sorts of work for the Lord in and
around the church, all my life. And of
course, for us Christians, without the Spirit, by definition, we are no
longer Christians. As Now, I am no longer a
professor but a pastor. And as a
pastor, I have another, more important piece of advice that I would like to
give you, and this is far more superior to the advice that I have given you
as a former college professor, because
it has to do with your eternal life and because it has to do with genuine
happiness. 2. The wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the spiritual world According to the Bible,
which we all affirm as the Word of the living God, we humans were created
when the Lord God formed the man from
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
(Gen For us Christians, there
is a whole new different set of wisdom, knowledge and understanding that we
should live with, that you, as new college-bound students, should be aware of
and should strive to attain. We call
them spiritual wisdom, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual understanding. We Christians must have a
good knowledge of the spiritual world as well as the secular world. You must know who God is: who is that
higher being who created the universe, who is still orchestrating the world
history, and who will judge the living and the dead? And you must know who we are: what the
first humans, Adam and Eve, were like, what happened to them, and as a result
what our spiritual conditions are now.
Most importantly, you must have a clear knowledge of how you can be
saved, how you can be sanctified, and how you will be glorified when you
leave this world. Without this
spiritual knowledge, you cannot live a successful Christian life. You might have a world of knowledge about
the world, but you are doomed. Remember! Without the saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ, the knowledge that can save your soul, you are just flesh. And as We Christians must also
have a good understanding of the spiritual principles operative in the The world says you are
the most important person in the world.
So it says: love yourself! Put
yourself first before all others! You
must be happy by all means! But the
Bible says, no, no!! It says: love God
with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength! And love your neighbor as yourself! These two are the greatest commandments of
God. Remember the two greatest
commandments. They are the most
important principles you have to live by, whatever you do. Always put God first, and always put
yourself in your neighbor’s shoes.
Honor the Lord by keeping the Sabbath holy; never ever neglect
worshipping the Lord on the Lord’s Day!
And treat your neighbor as you want to be treated; always think
“how would that person feel if I say this or do that?” that’s the
Golden Rule. When you always remember
and strive to obey the two greatest commandments of God, you will have an
understanding. You will have a good
life. The world also says: you
should live by the tangible, i.e., what you can see, hear, feel, and
touch. Everything should be provable
by hard science. It should make sense
before you believe it. If you cannot
see it with your own eyes, don’t believe it, don’t trust it, and
never put your life on it! But the
Bible says, no, no!! We live by the
invisible. We live by faith. And faith
is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Heb The world
also says: you should enjoy everything and anything that the world has to
offer. Make as much money as you can
and spend it for your enjoyment. Grab
power and fame and use it. Don’t
miss out on anything in this world, because your life is short. But the Bible
says, no, no!! The Lord says, be holy, for I am holy. The Lord says of us: you are a holy nation. And
when we get to heaven, we will continue to sing holy, holy, holy; holy is His name. Holy
means “be distinct, be separate.”
We Christians should live a life that is distinct from those of
non-Christians. That’s why our
Lord says this in We Christians
must also have a good dose of spiritual wisdom as well as secular
wisdom. The world says that you are
wise if you know how to manage your resources for your well-being in this
world: i.e., your time, money, energy, and opportunities, etc. But the Bible says, no, no!! Your ability to manage those things does
not make you wise. We all know the
story of the rich fool in Genuine wisdom, and the
ultimate wisdom, is not about being street-wise. It is not about the things that will pass
away. It is about spiritual
blessings. It is about eternal
life. A spiritually wise person uses
his short life on earth to prepare for his eternal life after this
world. A spiritually wise person
strives to enjoy genuine blessings while in this world: blessings like peace
that transcends all understanding, joy that has little to do with one’s
circumstances, and freedom from the worries and anxieties that come from
participating in the rat race of the world.
I want you to be wise, and get wiser all the time. Remember what remain after the dust
settles. Remember what genuine
happiness is. Conclusion In college, you need to
become wiser, more knowledgeable, and more understanding, not just in the
secular realm, more importantly in the spiritual realm. Always remember that you are a spiritual
being and that it is the Spirit that gives life and gives it to the
full. Don’t get entangled in your
fleshly life. How then do we get
spiritual wisdom, knowledge, and understanding? Remember that spiritual things do not come
from the ivory tower. Yes,
universities and colleges provide good services for us by helping us get
wiser, more knowledgeable, and more understanding about the world in which we
live. But you cannot expect universities
and colleges to help you grow in spiritual matters. No amount of tuition can acquire for you
spiritual wisdom. No teacher in the
classroom can teach you spiritual knowledge.
No logic or philosophy class can give you spiritual understanding. Only the Bible, only the Spirit, only the
church can provide you with spiritual wisdom, spiritual knowledge, and
spiritual understanding. Read the
Bible! Pray! Go to church! Don’t stop
there. There is more to it. The Bible says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, and
knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Do you really want to have wisdom and
knowledge and understanding? Then,
first, know the Holy One. Meditate on
the Holy God, and strive to be a holy person, one whose thought and life are
distinct from those of the surrounding world.
And, fear the Lord. Take his
Word seriously. Tremble when he pierces
your conscience, when he reveals your sin.
And honor Him in everything that you do. Then the Lord will bless you; he will help
you grow in his likeness: you will continue to become more loving, more holy,
and more righteous. He will help you
enjoy genuine blessings even in the midst of difficulties, blessings like
peace, joy, and freedom. And he will
work out your salvation and glorify you when the Day of Judgment comes. May the Lord bless you all in every step of
your way, as you embark on your new journey into great learning. |
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