DAILY DEVOTIONAL – January 8, 2020
“D’s Get Degrees”
Prayer: Jesus, You have given us not just the hope of eternal life beyond the grave, but of purposeful life today. Grant us the strength of faith to diligently live in Your Word and use the knowledge Your Word gives us to serve You in all that we do and with all that we have. Amen.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Devotional – “D’s Get Degrees”
By nature, I find the most value in things that prove to be useful. I’ve never really been a big collector of anything because I could never understand what the purpose is in having a collection of something. I am always impressed and amazed when I see an impressive collection, and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with collecting, but I don’t understand it much. If something doesn’t have utility and an express purpose, I don’t see a whole lot of value in it. Take for example fine China tableware. It certainly is gorgeous but is only used once a year at most. Or how about the “good towels” that people hang on the racks in a bathroom and that no one is allowed to use?
Now, if you’re not like me and you do find a lot of purpose in fine China and the good towels, I think we can still find some common ground when we consider the unique but absolutely useless collection that 71-year-old Michael Nicholson of Kalamazoo, Michigan has amassed over the years. According to ABC news, Michael Nicholson is a collector of degrees.
Michael has earned 29 degrees, and as of this article that was written back in 2012, he was pursuing his 30th degree. He has one bachelor’s degree, two associate degrees, 22 master’s degrees, three specialist degrees and one doctoral degree and was working on a master’s degree in criminal justice as he was being interviewed. Michael told ABC, “I would like to get to 33 or 34. I’m almost there. When I complete that, I’ll feel like I’ve completed my basic education. After that, if I’m still alive — that would take me to 80 or 81 — I would then be free to pursue any type of degree.”
When Western Michigan University Professor Tom Carey was asked to comment on Michael’s obscure fascination with collecting degrees, the professor said, “I’ve had 18,000 students in class and I’ve never heard of anybody like this. He’s the ultimate life-long learner. I marvel at his tenacity to go to school. … He’s intrinsically motivated. It’s unique, but it almost sounds bizarre. Some people collect animals and he collects tassels.”
One must wonder what the motivation was behind Michael’s continued pursuit of educational degrees. Well, as Michael himself says in the article, “Eventually, it became all about getting as many as I could.”
As I read the article, I was waiting to read what the result of all this education was, what Michael did for a living, what incredible invention he made. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. With all those diplomas, Michael has never been employed in any of his fields of study. In fact, Michael’s entire professional resume is filled with jobs that require little to no formal education. As Michael describes, “I just stayed in school and took menial jobs to pay for the education and just made a point of getting more degrees and eventually I retired so that I could go full-time to school.”
This dichotomy of Michael’s education and professional experience is summed up succinctly by Professor Carey, “He likes going to school but doesn’t want responsibility.”
As non-sensical and odd as Michael’s educational collection may be, there is a lesson in this story that we can and should take away as Christians.
There is more wisdom, more knowledge, more power and more purpose within the pages of the Bible then in all the knowledge in the universe. The Bible is the Word of God, and that Word not only imparts Godly wisdom and knowledge that when followed will bring God’s blessings, but more importantly, the Word of God gives life. If you want to become a doctor or a lawyer or scientist…you’re looking at years and years of rigorous study, 10’s of 1,000’s of dollars, and when all is said and done, much of that knowledge will fade into the background of tomorrow’s discoveries.
However, if you want to become a child of the Living Creator God, if you want to have your mind opened to the eternal truths that lay even outside of time and space, if you want to truly have your mind transformed so that you can be transformed into who and what you were created to be, then all you have to do is read, receive and abide in the Word of God. There are no years of study required in order to be called a child of God, only faith in the Christ and Lord Jesus whom the Scriptures given by God reveal to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is no cost in being able to know the Living God. God offers His love and forgiveness, His knowledge and the power of His Holy Spirit, freely through the pages of Scripture because Christ has already paid the cost required for us to be received by God by dying on the cross for our sins.
It absolutely is true that God has given us the right to become children of God by grace alone through faith in Christ, a faith given to us as a gift and planted in our hearts by the very Word of God. As Paul says in Romans 1:16, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” At the same time, God has also given us His Word in order that we may be transformed by it through faith. As Paul says in our text for today from 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Unlike the 29+ degrees that Michael Nicholson has earned, the Word of God and wisdom of God has been given to us freely in order that we would come to the knowledge of our sin, repent and receive God’s forgiveness in Christ Jesus, and then live in that Word and live obediently to that Word, knowing it and using it every single day in order to serve and glorify our gracious God in all that we do. God’s Word is above and over any other knowledge we have and all that we do. Regardless of what education you do or don’t have, or what letters you do or don’t have after your name, God’s Word supersedes it all and it is to that Word and for that Word that we exercise all of the other knowledge God has graciously allowed us to attain in this life.
Why attend church each Sunday? Why attend Bible Study and small groups? Why go on mission trips and serve the community? Why listen to these devotionals and have a daily devotional life? We certainly don’t do all these things just to be able to say we are “religious” or “Christian” or for the sake of religion. That is no more profitable or useful or beneficial to our soul or our life than Michael Nicholson’s 29 degrees that he achieved just to be able to say he has 34 of them. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is pointless and is no better than knowing nothing at all. So to, knowing the Christian routine and doing the Christian religion for the sake of being religious or for the sake of routine, is not the same as knowing Jesus Christ and following Him as a disciple.
God has called us to faith in His Son Jesus through His Word and calls us to be active and involved in the ministry of His church in order that we would first be sustained and strengthened in our faith through the Word that is preached, taught and received through the Sacraments in Church, and second that we would be equipped and enabled in heart, mind and soul to serve the Lord with our whole lives.
St. Peter talks about this beautifully in 2 Peter 1. Peter says in verses 3-8 that God has “granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him [Jesus Christ]” so that we would live this life knowing God and knowing His Divine power and grace through faith in Christ. Then Peter says something very important, he says, “For this very reason,” in other words, because God has saved you through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”
By God’s grace and mercy may it never be said of us as Michael Nicholson’s professor said of him, “He likes going to church, but he doesn’t want the responsibility.” My prayer for myself and for you today is that, as Scripture says in James 1:22, we would “not merely listen to the word,” but “do what it says”.
Thanks for sharing with me in this time of devotion, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
