Although some students have been in class for weeks now, the end of August still feels like back-to-school time and reminds me how excited I used to be when a new school year meant a brand new box of Crayola crayons and a new pair of Red Ball Jet tennis shoes — the ones that promised to let me “run faster, jump higher.”
That said, my overwhelming sentiment is one of immense thankfulness I’m not a student anymore. Especially not a college student.
Not because I’m mentally lazy, although that’s certainly debatable, but because what’s being taught in some of our universities is completely nuts.
Here’s a small sample of actual college courses offered in recent years: “The Sociology of Seinfeld,” “Vampires: Evolution of a Sexy Monster,” “Tree Climbing,” “How to Watch Television,” “Getting Dressed,” “Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse,” and “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.”
It doesn’t comfort me to know that although some college grads—potentially the future leaders of our country—can’t compose an intelligible paragraph, by golly they can now get dressed by themselves and are well-versed in all things “Seinfeld,” the TV comedy that by its own admission was a “show about nothing.”
The classes cited above are just a few of the weirder ones I discovered in a quick internet search. I think they’re ridiculous, but at least they’re relatively benign. Others I found, however, were anything but benign, like two courses offered at Swarthmore College: “Queering the Bible” and “Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology.”
Wasting time and money is one thing; thumbing your nose at God is quite another.
Just like many solid academic courses have been replaced with fluff and craziness, the truth about God and the reverential awe we should have for Him seems to have been relegated to the irrelevant file in the minds of many.
God is most definitely loving and even tender with His children. Romans 8:15 indicates that those who belong to Him may call Him “Abba,” the simplest, most intimate word in the Hebrew language for “daddy.” And the Father has proven His love in the most excruciatingly sacrificial, personal way: by allowing His Son, Jesus, to take the punishment we deserve for the sins we’ve committed.
Why? So that a way could be made for us to live in close relationship with Him forever.
But God’s love in no way diminishes His holiness and majesty, or precludes the wrath His justice will eventually cause Him to unleash upon those who’ve rejected and opposed Him.
One of the most iconic photographs of a U.S. president is a shot of President John F. Kennedy working at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office while his young son, “John-John,” peeks out from a secret door in the front of the desk.
The most powerful leader in the world was also a daddy who allowed his son to play at his feet. What a wonderful picture of the relationship God wants with us.
Psalm 85:10 says this about God and His blessings: “Graciousness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
We’re all about God’s graciousness and peace, but what about His truth and righteousness?
God is Who He says He is and will do what He says He’ll do. If we disregard, distort or deny those truths, we’re in trouble, whether we’re teaching in a classroom, preaching in a pulpit, or chatting at our kitchen table.
We can’t know everything about God, but we can know enough to make me want to say this to those who mock Him: See ya; I wouldn’t want to be ya.
?“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” – Romans 1:18