Perhaps one line from John Belushi in Animal House says it best about my
college education, “seven years of college down the drain.” I was working on
the seven year plan, only as a third year freshmen I didn’t know it at the
time. I was starting college for the third time, and at age 22 saw the college
world and lifestyle much different. While for most of my classmates it was
thirteenth grade, for me it was thirteenth grade repeated, and five years since
I had escaped high school. For them it was the first time not living with
Mommie and Daddy, and they were finding out how age doesn’t necessarily
represent maturity. They were all about the freedom of partying, of having to
make decisions for themselves, and suffering the consequences of not having a
small school to bail them out. My third time was the University of New Mexico,
and had more students than people in the town I grew up in. And in the five
years since I graduated high school, I had experience under my belt, they were
still being taught theory. But then so was I, except I had the experience to
back up what they taught, right or wrong. Finding that what was taught was
often at odds with reality. At least what I had seen.
You cannot teach experience, you must live it. You may try to describe it
to others, with similes like as and like, but until you have applied what you
have been taught, it is still just theory. which can be scary, because it
requires you to make a decision, in which you may be wrong. With consequences
to follow. But after two more first year semesters, I was back out on my own,
with college added to my list of experiences, with no degree other than
application of an education, mostly gained through life. Which too must be
experienced.
Mostly I felt out of place at UNM, I had seen things and done things that
youth cannot brag about, or deny, based on the events. While the other freshmen
wrote home for money, I had to work, changing priorities, and seeing how
different life was in the real world. Big deal I may have a degree someday, and
a wall to hang it on, right now it was $1.25/hour working in the filing center
in the university office. Where experience was about to change my education. I
had sold Sam a motorcycle, he had a friend Joe who worked in the counseling
office, and introduced me to the Dean of Students at UNM. Who turned me onto
the financial guru, and 20 minutes later I walked out unemployed, but with over
$3500 worth of college grants, the largest one based on the fact my parents
lived in another state, and I didn’t live at home. That I would not have to pay
back. Who creates these criteria? But my experience had given me an education
in who you know, and how important it was to be on your own. Or at least not a
slave to the college tradition. Not one class I had taken to date taught me
what I had learned on my own in business. They had the Banco de Momma y Poppa,
or loans, I had grants and the cash. They worked part time jobs, I got to go
riding. You decide who got the better education.
Now I am not against education, but know how important the application of
it is. A degree may show you have graduated, but what have you learned? Tell
me about your experiences? Can you teach experience? A lesson best
demonstrated through an lunch at Captain D’s in Cleveland, Tennessee. I was
lost, not really, I still had gas, and stopped to eat lunch. Across from me
were five men interviewing a man for a position at their church. He had just
returned from years on the ministry field, and his words showed a deep
relationship with Christ. He had been there, done that, and had the t-shirt.
And listening in, I could tell they didn’t get it. They wanted a degree, he had
seen Jesus in action. They didn’t get what a treasure they had in the person
they were interviewing, he didn’t meet the criteria of their denomination, and
how to tell him they weren’t interested in him. He didn’t have the necessary
degree, but God saw through it. Where defeat may be evident, he wasn’t hired,
God rescued him from religion, and these denominational mental cripples. They
weren’t interested in what God had to offer, it was only a position to fill, one
that they could control. We don’t need no outsider, we are a healthy church, we
pay our bills. We have special services, we blab, blab, blab, blab blab. But
God had greater things for the man, and I would be interested to know where he
ended up. He had seen the things taught in church, he had seen the lost saved,
the blind given sight, the lame walk. He had seen Jesus change lives and change
people. All without the benefit of religion. They were still being taught,
trying to learn, he had the experience of Jesus in his life. His testimony was
his resume, his life was a graduate course, they were in preschool, still
wanting and getting only the milk children desire. Don’t confuse teaching with
application, you just may be one of them. Which one is up to you.
Jesus Christ must be experienced. He is not a simile where he is like this
or as that. He is unique, the son of God, our Lord and savior. No one else has
those titles or qualifications. He died on the cross, gave us grace in
salvation, yet some feel the gift is not enough. They must work for a degree in
salvation to prove they are saved. And never graduate. They might have had a
glimpse of heaven, but will be denied entrance. It is who you know, and knowing
Jesus is the only way to graduate upon death into heaven. We are all always
learning, but to what degree? For what degree? Studying to be approved by
whom? Or is it who? Did you know the newest person in Christ has more
knowledge available to him than those without him and a list of degrees? Isn’t
it about time to apply what you know? Or are you already? A degree in religion
may get you a position in church, it may not in heaven.
So God’s words to me were “if the seat of your pants is wearing out faster
than the soles of your shoes, you have a problem.” Are you sitting studying or
out applying what Jesus and who Jesus is? It doesn’t take a church position,
but the church needs Jesus too. It needs those who trust and obey where the
spirit leads, not another D.D. behind the pastor’s name. Not another radio
star, an author or teacher, but one who knows Jesus, and can share who he is.
To encourage their flock to get out and live for him, to apply the Jesus in
their life to their life. Is your whole Christian experience based on an
education that has never been applied? Sadly I know of a once strong church
based mostly on teaching the scriptures, that when tested the pastors all lost
it. They had taught about Jesus, now they to trust him. They may have blown
the test, but hopefully passed the course for heaven.
When Jesus gave the great command of spreading the gospel, it is in Greek
“as you go,” share the gospel. As you go to college, as you go to church, as
you go riding. As you live your life, you are showing what you know, but are
you showing who you know? Still paying college loans off? God has no degree
program for salvation. It is free. No diploma, no paperwork involved, he has
written his word on our hearts, so we have it everywhere. Our actions and
attitudes speaking volumes. Maybe Bluto was right about his seven years down
the drain. Only Jesus gives you the chance today to start over, to apply
himself to your life. Looking back, maybe the man was really interviewing the
church board, and found them wanting. If your next job interview asks “tell me
about your experience?” what will you say? If we ask you about Jesus, your
answer is.....
Your testimony, so go out and start living one today. The world needs to
hear it, you need to share it. But first you must experience Jesus yourself.
How many souls have you effected wearing out the soles of your shoes?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com