Learning to Learn

It’s almost May, and that means gardening, mowing, spring cleaning, cooking out, and a host of other activities related to the warm weather. Because of the very wet recent weather, it also means farmers are getting a late start planting, May means Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, and May means graduation.
I may have shared this story in this space before, but I remember a high school valedictorian years ago mentioning in her speech that “commencement is a funny name for the end.” That was clever. Of course many, perhaps most, high school grads see the commencement exercises as just that: the end, the completion, of their secondary education.
I have had some conversations recently with a certain high schooler who lives in my house, and who does not see the long-term value of learning about things like, for instance, which category a particular mushroom be-longs in, or algebra as a whole. He has put forth the daring assertion that he will neither remember, nor need to remember, most of what he is learning. And technically, he’s right. I heard a very funny bit from a comedian years ago who proposed to start a “5 minute university”, where he would teach you, in five minutes, what the average college graduate remembers five years after graduation. Example: “Economics? Supply and demand. That’s it.”
But most of us realize now (and he will, too) that high school is not so much about what we learn; it’s about learning how to learn. Those grades on the transcripts matter, not because of the material itself, but because they give you options in the next phase of life. It’s one thing to say grades don’t matter, because you’re not going to college; but if you change your mind about college, it’s too late to go back and get good grades in high school.
The word of God speaks to us about good works on earth leading to rewards in heaven. It is super important to remember that our good works can’t GET us to heaven; only the shed blood of Christ can do that. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast.” But the very next verse says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (italics mine)
We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Salvation, and ultimately Heaven, are ours as a gift. But there are rewards in Heaven, and those are connected to the works we do as believers. Whether we say it or not, sometimes we find ourselves living like none of that really matters, as long as we are going to heaven and not hell. But graduation day is coming, and when the rewards are being distributed, it will be too late to live the life God was calling us to live here on Earth.
So don’t be weary in well-doing. Live the Gospel; Preach the Gospel. There is much work to be done before graduation day, and we are called to do it together. Living Word Family Church is a great place to connect and be a part of what God is doing in the world. Nothing we do in life is more important, nothing has more lasting consequences, than working, teaching, loving, giving, and living in a manner that brings people into that saving relationship with God. One big difference in this school illustration, though, is that our graduation day is not on the calendar. Whether we die or are alive when Jesus returns, we don’t know when we will have completed our course. We must be ready starting now. Put your hand to the plow, believer, and remember that His yoke is easy, and His burden light, because HE is the one providing the strength we need to do the work that pleases Him.
Laboring with You in Christ,
Pastor Scott