Confessions of a study junkie
Bronwyn Stow can't help herself
Someone waves a course document in my face and I melt. Just love getting my head in to the books again. And in theology no less.
So off I go again on the study junky rollercoaster: a Certificate in Theology from Moore College. Early in 2009 I enrolled with Moore for the Cert. Theo.
Five years! Whatever has possessed me?
I launched in to Unit 1, ‘Introduction to the Bible’. Piece of cake, I thought. After all, I have ‘done’ over half a century of Bible study, memory verses, listening to sermons. Teaching Sunday school.
Reading, especially with my studies for the Grad. Dip. RE with ACU. That ought to help, surely. And I have taught ‘RE’ in school. The academic stuff, about ethics and evil and suffering. Even had some teeth left for Job.
Thus it was, in 2009 I launched my ignorance and arrogance into that first unit, the ITB, with all the bravado I could muster. Only to discover that I knew hardly anything at all. Just a momentary shattering of the ego!
And that is the point. The ego.
Caught up in head stuff, knowledge, intellectual contemplation, frames on the wall…Studying the first unit for Cert. Theo. has indeed been something of a challenge to my ego; especially its academic side.
Certainly I have found the content to be absorbing, the knowledge exciting. The course content is intellectually stimulating and challenging, and also enlightening.
But more particularly, more importantly, it has been life changing. Until now I had little if any appreciation of the amazing unity of the Bible, and of the development of its common themes towards that overall unity.
Yes I understand still, that the Bible is a collection of writings composed over 1500 -1600 years, by 40 human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit, and ultimately compiled as one volume. Yes I recall many Bible memory verses. And that is the point.
There is no such thing, I am discovering, as a Bible story or a Bible verse in isolation from any other Bible story or verse. Let alone any one of the 66 books being a stand-alone text!
My knowledge is growing and my intellect is being stimulated. But of greater significance is my growing understanding of God revealed through his word; his unfailing love, grace, and faithfulness; and the gradual unfolding of his purpose ‘to reverse the effects of sin and establish a new creation’.
I have not ‘suffered’ the exam at all. And as for the five years? Try the rest of my life. The Certificate on the wall will be fun if and when it happens. But what matters most is the process, the insights, and what any of it actually means for me and my relationship with God.
And in the words of Jeremiah (31:33), I rejoice and am blessed as God continues to put his law in my mind and write his word on my heart.
Well, how can any certificate in a frame compete with that!
Bronwyn is enrolled in the diocese’s new Certificate in Theology and Ministry. Why not experience this great learning and life transformation for yourself? See details here.