THE ART OF LEARNING FULLY
As you may know, some online colleges are allowing students to take unlimited courses, and on their own timeline. As a result, some students are speeding through their online courses in a short period of time, thus leading to very quick degrees. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “degree hacking,” “college speed runs,” or “hyper-accelerated degrees.”
As you know, the internet offers us virtually unlimited access to information, but very little in the way of wisdom, and so we often think that knowing about something is equivalent to its reality in our lives. But actually, that is not what true knowledge means. For instance, in the Bible, to know was to do. It was intimate, experiential, something within you. That is, if it didn’t impact your life, you didn’t really know it, even if you had the information, because you can know about something and never have it impact your life. This is why the kind of belief—the kind of knowledge—that Jesus calls for is more than just accepting information.
You see, the kind of knowledge that God desires is intimate, experiential, and relational. The Greek word “to know” (ginwskv, ginosko) is even used in verses saying that a man “knew” his wife, and nine months later there was a baby. In other words, this kind of intimacy means knowing, doing, believing, and relating.
In colonial American, one would be apprenticed for six years to become a particular tradesperson in some craft. The apprentice would live, eat, and breathe with the person they wanted to emulate in terms of the skill they were trying to master. This was the dynamic behind the idea of an apprentice. You would seek to learn a craft under a master to acquire not simply information, but also a skill that you would be able to do very well. And only when you could do it properly were you turned loose as one who had the knowledge—real knowledge—to do it.
In a sense, it seems like today we’ve made “knowing” all about information—seminars, videos, podcasts, TV classrooms, conferences—which allows the head to be stuffed, but the life to remain empty. So please don’t let your education and preparation be only about information; let them also be years filled with mentors and guides, conversations, and life lessons. Learn to be an apprentice. It is one thing that cannot be sped through.
Devotedly your pastor,
Bill Blanchard