Teen, Take Up Your Task!

Jessica Greer

Arizona State University recently made headlines when the ASU fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon hosted a “black” theme party on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In anticipation of the event, these enlightened students of higher education kept their closest five hundred friends updated by posting photos of white kids dressed like Snoop Dogg. The party was filled with offensive, stereotypical African-American themes such as jerseys, sagging clothes, and even watermelon cups. Civil rights leaders immediately demanded the students involved and the fraternity itself be expelled for what they called "an assault on the black community." Though calling the party a disgrace would be putting it mildly, I’d say it was more an assault on appropriate behavior for an academic institution.

How have our universities become so derailed from their scholarly beginnings, when they served as a compass for moral values and academically equipped citizens? Campus culture has devolved into a glorified existential stupidity. Members of similar fraternities throughout the country squander their college years in a drunken stupor. As it says in Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." Is it a mere parallel that a lack of discipline in our educational systems exists alongside an increasing number of students falling into depression, suicide, murder, rape, drug addiction, and drunkenness?

Harvard University was founded in 1636, only sixteen years after the Mayflower landed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. By the time the American Revolution began in 1775, the thirteen colonies had nineteen degree-granting colleges. It is not a coincidence that a young America was constructing one of the most historically valuable documents ever produced while pursuing the establishment of institutions of higher education. The correlation between the vision for the thirteen colonies to become a powerful autonomous union and its effectiveness in bringing abstract ideas of freedom and prosperity into actualization is unmistakable. The reality of the revelation of the founding fathers defined each citizen's role and thus required them to contribute to the great task at hand. This is not to give the illusion of a revised historical account of a utopian America, that gave freedom to all. Certainly there was slavery and religious and secular intolerance, as well as a sort of majority tyranny that judged those who maintained their loyalty to the crown. The Amish were occasionally tarred and feathered for their neutrality during the Revolution.  Nevertheless, the colonies were set on a course towards a moral humanity full of progress and blessing for all people.

Contrary to the current philosophical trends in education, academia is meant to function as a discipline rather than as an ego-inflating self-esteem therapy. Education is a task; it is work. Yet our campuses are filled with students who are losing all self-control, some to the point that they don’t even survive long enough to mature into productive citizens. Along with the complexities of a moral paradigm shift in our culture, this generation has lost its vision, and the taskless youth in institutes of higher learning are floundering in a pop-cultured campus, searching for meaning through countless hook-ups and drunken blackouts. American college students are scoring lower academically than their predecessors, but have better self-images. This means they are more narcissistic and self- delusional than their predecessors.

Ecclesiastes 11:9,10 says "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity." The dichotomy between indulging vanities and pursuing vision becomes apparent as a young person either accepts his task through discipline or rejects it in favor of immediate gratification. Not all vanities are evil, but enjoying too many pleasures while neglecting the task at hand is a means to the same end.

How is it that so many church kids reared in homes full of spiritual investment, security, love, and all that a nuclear family has to offer find themselves on the verge of extinction? Why are these well-groomed kids not going straight in to embrace higher education? What post-high school task are these church kids taking up? Even within the ministry, the process of discipleship is a form of education. Church kids get an education of sorts through ministry training, thousands of sermons, and other forms of outreach. Some have traveled with missionary teams and medical teams. So why do we stop at that point?

It’s important to realize that education is not just acquiring a bunch of information. Living in a digital world keeps most of us informed hourly on everything from current events to what our friends ate for dinner. Information is literally at our fingertips. But the ability to Google the French Revolution, or the date and time Columbus landed in the New World, does not make one educated. An education is given through a process of systematic instruction. The key word, here, is instruction. An imperative part of instruction is to learn to focus and discipline oneself while working on a specific task. Taking up a task of discipline is a vital aspect of pursuing God's purpose for our lives. Rather than assuming a generic fantasy of God's will, it is putting the hand to the plow, and connecting the instruction with the work.

There is no blanket plan for people's lives, so not everyone's discipline is the same. Some may go to a university, others to vocational schools. Others may pursue the ministry through discipleship. Whatever the task requires, that is the instruction a student should follow. Many students in the Bible were trained and prepared for their purpose. The prophet Samuel was literally raised in the temple under the mentorship of Eli. Samuel was not merely a glorified altar boy; he was a student of the Book from childhood. He was twelve years old when heard the voice of God. Samuel had a God-ordained purpose, pronounced by God even before his birth. The Apostle Paul, father of apologetics, had an elite education, and is historically one of the greatest minds of all time in his own right.

The most fascinating student of all is the supreme example of Jesus. The specifics of Jesus' formal education are not known in detail. There are several historians who infer that Christ would have had the same education as any Jewish boy in Nazareth. We know he was a trained carpenter (Mark 6:3), and although we might assume He was the Son of God and would have inherent knowledge of the Scriptures, Luke 2:46-47 tells us his parents "found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." Several clues point to Jesus being respected as someone schooled in the Scriptures. Matthew 4:23 tells us that Jesus taught in the synagogues, and many called Jesus Rabbi. The way He taught in parables reflects the style of religious teachers of the time. Perhaps the reference Jesus makes to the great Rabbi Hillel (65 BCE-20 CE, a respected Jewish thinker who came before Jesus) is the most fascinating intimation of Jesus' respect for the Jewish school of thought. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus says: "Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." This is a direct reference to Rabbi Hillel, who similarly said: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."

True knowledge begins under the instruction of God's law. Proverbs 1:7 says: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." Taking up your task as a young Christian does not mean choosing a self-interested goal for success and self-glorification. Quite the opposite: serving God and His purpose means acquiring His knowledge and His wisdom. Hosea 4:6-7 says: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame." Christians are required to grow in knowledge and discipline, submitting themselves to instruction even as Jesus did.

Being a good church kid while neglecting to take up a task is not a sin. However, God challenges us as Christians to continuously move forward in our faith and in His purpose. When we submit ourselves to discipline and instruction, we are building on foundations greater than our own, and connecting our beliefs with actions.