I was just thinking randomly today that it's ironic and we seem to need more and more education to get anywhere in the working world. I mean, what is our world working towards? It seems like we're not working towards anything, but just trying to maintain that pinnacle that's always been around. As more people get educated, more education is needed if you want to get to the top - or even to get a decent job. It's just that once there is more selection, people want a finer sieve - because our natural tendency is to strive for the best - so employers raise the bar.
I may be wrong, because I don't know a whole lot about this stuff. But really - what are we pushing towards? It really feels like we are pushing some people down and some people up, as we always have. And so I don't think the poverty situation will ever greatly improve; it may improve some, but not a lot, which seems sad.
4 comments:
Yeah :/ I hate it. I sort of really don't want to pursue a grad degree, and especially not a ph.d., but I just keep telling myself to believe that this is not a colossal waste of time/money/energy, that it's NOT for a better job, but it's really to be equipped so God can put me in someplace where He wants to use me.
It does feel often meaningless, though.
My greatest fear is that as I get more and more education, I'll become more and more of a snobby prick who does not love people, especially non-Christians, the way Jesus loves people. :sigh:
- ed
As a follow-up -- sometimes I want to completely abandon the idea of teaching/working in any established Christian higher ed world, like a Christian college, OR church pastoral ministry (both of which would require a masters or ph.d.), and instead go into some kind of more incarnational lay ministry or missions work.
But sometimes what I struggle with is, I feel like I'm not taken seriously by people in a Christian context if I don't have some kind of post-bachelors degree in something ministry related. Like in their eyes, I don't have the authority necessary to serve. It seems that for many people who are serving full-time in either States-side ministry (e.g., urban ministry) or ministries outside of the U.S. (e.g., missions), they pursue graduate degrees.
:sigh: I don't have any answers :/
Hmm...very interesting thoughts/situation. I don't go for the gaging people by their education level thing. Spiritually education is absolutely NO guarantee a person knows what they're talking about (pun intended).
But environment counts for something. I know a guy who is doing a Ph.d. in engineering, intending to become a professor, because engineering is a field that a lot of international students go for...so since he wanted to reach out to them specifically he saw that as a ministry opportunity. I don't know many people who would go through all that "trouble" to do that.
What a unique way to impact people; it seems like a rare context in which to hear the Christian message, but it may impact some deeply. Maybe sometimes credentials do earn us a listening ear, and that is not wrong.
Really we need Christians in all walks of life! We never know who will see the light through us.
So don't look down on what you're doing. I think that we have to accept that God has graced some people with the means for further education and not some others. For some people, scrubbing and cleaning may turn out to be their offering to God, but that doesn't mean it is worth anything less than a theological sermon, and it can give them just as much joy to offer it. I know, because someone was just sharing that with me the other day. She said, "It gave me such joy to scrub the church clean the other day...this is all I have to offer to God!"
Which...I disagree with her on that last point. She is a very humble person, which means she has much to offer. And guess what? Her church decided to fund a seminary degree for her, so she is studying Bible courses right now and I happen to know she is a very good student!
We really cannot limit the ways that God works. We really cannot. Besides, some people have the funds, but they don't want further education. Education takes a lot of discipline and determination...
I think sometimes we actually have to accept the amount of material wealth God has given us. I think if we do then God may show us how to use it for His glory.
I guess when I posted that I was thinking more of humanity's general tendencies than specific instances, although specific instances make up the whole.
I think the way the world is makes a lot of education initiatives a lost cause.
But a lot of it is up to people too. For some success will come when they accept what they have (whether much or little), and for others success will come when they fight (either against apathy or to further themselves).
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