Devotion - Thursday, September 22

I am often asked to serve as a reference for students.  I am always honored, and it is a request that I take very seriously.  (I do need to warn you that if the request comes with a form to fill out and return, you need to keep after me till it is done - I am great at procrastinating.)

One of these came due this week, and I was writing up the letter yesterday.  The student is applying for graduate studies, in education.  

I found myself reflecting on this person and sharing what I observe in so many of you.  That is a dedication to knowledge, but also a desire for wisdom.  My interactions allow me to see the ways in which you are not only working to learn a particular body of information, but that you are also allowing what you learn to connect with other things you have learned and transform the way you see the world and live in it.

It is true that not every course does this, and not every conversation reveals such profound insights.  But it does happen, trust me, over the years that we share and through the many starts and stops of an academic career.  

Too few professors get to know you when you are in your first year, and then get to see you when you are about to graduate.  It is my joy to report to them the effects of their labors and to report to them what you have become.

All of this surfaced this morning, as I was finishing up my reading of the Book of Job.  Job ends with an acknowledgement that God alone is true wisdom.  We search and seek that wisdom, and the learned are those who apply it to their lives.  This is what I get to see.  This is what I experience.  This is why l love my life and my life's work.  Thank you for sharing your journey with me.