My second-highest possession

Today, May 16, 2014, I "should have" graduated.  God had other ideas.  I'm still in school, in fact two different ones, and will graduate in two more years.  What's wrong with me?  

As I watch the class I came in with as an undergrad walk and flip tassels today, I thank God for my second-highest gift besides saving faith in His promise:  my education.  The Lord has somehow put the right people in my life when I could grow from them the most, whether professors or other students, and their "Yeses" and "Nos" have reshaped my future.  

The ability to go to an academic institution and earn high grades is a beautiful blessing from God, for which the graduate should give hearty thanks.  Not everyone can or has the will to do so, and it is certainly a way to publicly glorify Him.  I look at life as kind of a game:  how much can I further my understanding by the end of the day, to more and more enhance my ministry as a Christian in two "kingdoms"?  Some view college as a contest to see how much nothing they can do in the space of four years, but really, how much "something" can you cram into every day?  

Often, learning is not what you expect - it may come in a conversation in the car, an emergency, encountering a person you never really became acquainted with before, trying a new skill in your field, reading, or solving a problem with a group.  Every single day, our hours are composed of these types of things, one after another.  Stepping back and checking out what I do in a day, the Lord has seen to it that these "classes" give me a full schedule.  It's just up to the student to run around with the intellectual "butterfly net" and grab all of the knowledge that exists to be caught.  

To my teachers in whatever form:  thank you for putting up with all of my hand-raising, questions, and tangents, plus reading my logical soups called research papers and clapping at my recitals.  I thank the Giver of all wisdom for placing you in my life for edification to His praise, and hope that you may be enriched "beyond a lifetime."

To all student:  keep taking the classes of Christian life, no matter what kind of student you are.  Your gracious God has laid wide the privilege and signed all of the application sheets for it in His precious words of salvation.  

"In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Colossians 2:3

"God gives us richly all things to enjoy."  1 Timothy 6:17

All our knowledge, sense and sightLie in deepest darkness shroudedTill Your Spirit breaks our nightWith the beams of truth unclouded;You alone to God canst win us;You must work all good within us.

Glorious Lord, Yourself impart,Light of Light, from God proceeding;Open now our ears and heart,Help us by Your Spirit’s pleading.Hear the cry Your people raises; Hear and bless our prayers and praises.
- Tobias Clausnitzer, "Blessed Jesus, At Your Word"