7 Ways Education Has Ruined Me

I sometimes hear people say things like:  "Don't let education ruin your passion for God." Or "I read the Bible not textbooks that can ruin me." Or "I had a [nephew] on fire for God until he went to seminary.  He was ruined there."

So I am officially going on record acknowledging that, yes, education has ruined me too.  Here are the 7 ways:

     1.  It taught me how to rightly divide God's Word and develop biblical interpretational skills ensuring accurate content whenever I teach or preach.  It ruined me from being able to teach and preach whatever idea pops into my mind.

     2.  It taught me to think theologically.  It ruined me from being able to chase after whatever theological fad is in vogue.

     3.  It taught me to be a good listener to a variety of voices learning how to extract the "take-aways" and ignore the nuggets that are questionable.  It ruined from being able to listen to whatever podcast my itching ears want to hear and accept the entire teaching as gospel truth.

     4.  It taught me to know the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials affording me the opportunity to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ from many different traditions.  It ruined me from being isolated within my fellowship having no outside collegiality or interaction.

     5.  It taught me to be deeply honored and grateful for being Pentecostal enjoying the global impact and size of our movement.  It ruined me from small thinking and false inferiority associated with being a part of an on-the-other-side-of-the-tracks church.

     6.  It taught me to write and develop my thoughts through words expanding my ministry to both the spoken and written word.  It ruined me from always using the excuse that I'm not a good writer.

     7.  It taught me to be a lifelong learner.  It ruined me from living a life of mediocre thinking rarely expanding my brain.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden, President

Ascent.edu

The Day The Song Won't End

I have the annoying love of playing a song I like over and over and over.  I can remember rewinding the tape back in the 80's to listen to the song just one more time.  One road trip of doing this, I almost brought my sisters to the brink of mutiny over the control of the tape deck (haven't used that term in a while).  To this day they will claim it was the closest they have ever come to being brainwashed.

But I have pressed on over the decades fully embracing my annoying love.  I stopped years ago trying to analyze why I don't get bored with the song or even end up hating it.  I just simply don't, of course, much to the dismay of those closest to me that have a more normal song-listening practice.

However, I can offer one simple explanation for my madness:  I get happy when the song begins, and I get sad when the song ends.  Pretty deep, huh?  I'm sure smarter people could give a more academic or even neurological reason for my love of repetition, but I'm content with my simple explanation.

And leaning into it a little more, I believe that my chronic wonder with how my soul is being fully prepared for Eternity might offer some insight as well.  Perhaps my annoying love is actually a small taste of that which is to come:  The day the song won't end. The day that the words penned by John as he was caught up in the Spirit will no longer be words for me to read but a reality for me to experience.  The day where I will be with the angels and every tribe, tongue and nation singing together:  Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise (Revelation 5).  In that Day, my annoying love will no longer be annoying.  It will be the norm.

So in the meantime, give some grace to those who love playing the same song over and over again, and maybe give it a try yourself.  Who knows?  Maybe your soul, if you listen close enough, will whisper of the coming Day of Glory, the Day of Heavenly bliss, the Day the Song Won't End.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden