Monday, August 31, 2009

Motivated to study

For His glory

A friend emailed the news of the death of arguably the world's oldest pupil. Joseph Stephen Kimani Nganga Maruge was 89.

The story reported, "Maruge accomplished his biggest goal—being able to read the Bible—but he remained shy of completing primary school." The line stood out of the screen that I just had to pause to read it again.

In his old age, his sole motivation was to be able to read the Bible all by himself, letting the "word of Christ richly dwell within [him]" (Colossians 3:16). He devoted what remained of his strength to study God's word. Now I don't know his spiritual condition, but I could only hope that he did it out of a desire to know God more.

That's the ultimate purpose of education, I guess—to know God and His greatness. We study medicine to appreciate the glory of God in how our bodies operate. We study law to marvel at His justice. We study nursing to be amazed at how He cares for us. We study science to marvel at the intricacies of of His creation.

So we must approach our books, homeworks, and reports with a God-glorifying perspective: I want to know You more through the things I study.

4 Comments:

Blogger delusion angel said...

this made me stop and think.

thank you, lance. ^_^

Tue Sep 01, 04:00:00 PM GMT+8  
Anonymous Ralph said...

Is that the photo I took? :D

Tue Sep 01, 08:36:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

You're welcome!

Tue Sep 01, 10:56:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Manong, no—I took that. My undergrad thesis, actually.

Tue Sep 01, 10:58:00 PM GMT+8  

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