"Degrees"

His degrees were advanced,

And if you casually glanced,

At the paper framed up on his wall,

You’d see his credentials,

Academic essentials,

To question would take lots of gall.

But in spite of his learning,

His heart kept on turning,

To agnostic beliefs don’t you know,

His old stinking thinking,

And faith always shrinking,

Denied what is true blow by blow.

I’ve wondered since then,

‘Cause he was my friend,

If my prof ever once came around,

To the truth of the Savior,

Receiving God’s favor,

If salvation he ever found.

We prize education,

But there’s no vindication,

Of teaching that leads us astray,

I hope we still hear it,

The voice of the Spirit,

And all that God’s Word has to say.

Again I will tell it,

And I try to sell it,

Ignorance is truly a curse,

But if our knowing’s not growing,

God’s seeds we are sowing,

We aren’t getting better, just worse.

Heaven keeps calling,

And without it we’re falling,

Into darkness that keeps us quite blind,

But truth gives us healing,

And the wonderful feeling,

Of God’s power renewing the mind.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT)

We are called to love the Lord our God with all our minds. Intellectual pursuits are worthy of our effort and ignorance has no virtue. But one can be an educated fool and miss what matters most. The idea would be to learn all we can and at the same time pursue God’s will as our top priority. If we surrender our thinking to Him He promises to renew our minds and direct our paths. We will find God’s good and pleasing will for our lives.

Lord, help us to surrender our minds to You, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Jack Sorenson, used by permission. Thanks, Jack, and God bless you.