OCTOBER 20 Title: But I Have a Graduate Degree Author: Elisabeth Elliot A woman was asked to speak to the women students of a seminary about job opportunities for those with seminary degrees. She writes, I talked to them first principally about being, doing, and going as God wills (not who am I, but whose am I). Then I listed both traditional and creative ways to fulfill needs in the Kingdom of God. Three feminists were offended especially that I should mention a nanny among the 70+ jobs. But Aristotle was a nanny to Alexander the Great! These women had bought into the values of the world and were ready to fight for their ten years of executive computer programming. They said my talk had put them down more than any mans. Theology means the study of God, but if an earned degree in that field confers a position in life which makes servanthood beneath us (three women felt put down), something is badly amiss. The servant is not greater than his master, Jesus said. Once you have realized these things, you will find your happiness in doing them (John 13:16,17, PHILLIPS). Happiness--never mind the status of the job. The disciples had been occupied with petty rivalries and questions about greatness. Jesus, with the full knowledge that the Father had put everything into His hands (John 13:3, PHILLIPS), took into those hands the dusty, calloused feet of each of the twelve, washed them, and dried them with a towel. It was His happiness to do the will of His Father, but it was a shock to those rugged men. The washing of feet hadnt occurred to them as coming under that heading, I suppose, even though they had heard the principle before. I can imagine the bewilderment on their faces. Cant you just hear Peters tone as he says, You, Lord, washing my feet? (v. 6, NEB). Values get skewed so easily nowadays, dont they? TIME (Nov. 7, 1988) carried the testimony of one man who, according to the worlds measurement of success, had hit the top. He was playwright Eugene ONeill, and if its success that makes people happy he should have been the happiest of men. He sounded like the most miserable: Im fed to the teeth with the damned theatre.... The game isnt worth the candle. If I got any real spiritual satisfaction out of success in the theatre it might compensate. But I dont. Success is as flat, spiritually speaking, as failure. After the unprecedented critical acclaim to Mourning Becomes Electra I was in bed nearly a week, overcome by the profoundest gloom and nervous exhaustion. Lay ONeills words alongside Jesus: Once you have realized these things you will find your happiness in doing them. Its hard for us earthbound mortals to realize them. Its easy to be beguiled by temporal rewards, short-lived promises of fulfillment. The brighter the prospects the world offers, the more obscure become the principles of the Kingdom in which, as Janet Erskine Stuart said, humility and service are the only expression and measure of greatness.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 13:08:36 +0000
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