Donald Miller made an interesting observation in his Through Painted Deserts that has sparked a pretty good bit of discussion with several of my friends. He was talking about the night before he and his friend Paul left for their trek across America when all of their friends came by to wish them well. He said, “We wished they could join us, and they wished likewise, but school and work owned their youth.”**
I have really thought a lot about that statement. Especially because I am in a library right now watching the sun go down. It is gorgeous. It just rained. The sky is an orange-red masterpiece. I am 23, and this is how I spend my nights: studying, reading, and writing. So what separates me from Donald Miller’s friends? Does school “own my youth”?
Yes.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I am ungrateful for that which I have. I know I am one of the most blessed people in the history of humanity to have the opportunity to study like I do.
But sometimes it just gets a little old doing this everyday. And I wonder about the validity of someone my age doing the things that I do. I guess what I am searching for is an understanding as to the why. Why am I spending all of my time with a nose in a book? When I look back on this time in life as an adult, will I think that it was a royal waste of time and money? Will I be glad I did it? Oh, and the more practical questions, Will this M.Div. really help me find a better job?
And the answer to all of the above questions is, “I do not know.” Truthfully, I do not know how I will view much of anything in a few years. All I can do is trust that I am being formed by this degree and the whole of my educational experience for the better. And I think that is true.
This post is really just long way of saying that I think it is important to see the value of each stage of life. So often I talk to people who feel as though they are in a perpetual state of transition—myself included. Or at the very least we feel negatively toward the place in life in which we find ourselves. We are living in “that time,” and not this time. And I think that is unhealthy.
Right?
**This quote can be found in his Through Painted Deserts (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2005), 7.
