The Classroom Of Life

Have I not written to you excellent thingsOf counsels and knowledge,That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth,That you may answer words of truth to those who send to you?

Proverbs 22:20-21 (NKJV)

God is our master instructor. His Word and his Spirit counsel and guide. Life is our classroom. No university program could ever compare with the education and insight and knowledge he imparts in even the small moments of life.

Let me tell you a story. Jean Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century. One day he gave a student a fish, told him to study it, and left the room. After several hours the student felt he had learned all he could, but Agassiz did not return. So he observed some more. Finally Agassiz returned with the brief comment that the student had made a fair beginning and left again. The student fell to his study in earnest and after months of investigation declared that a fish was the most fascinating of studies.

Life was indeed Agassiz’s classroom. He saw the divine plan of God omnipresent in nature and could not accept Darwinism, a theory that denied the intelligent design he saw everywhere in the natural world. He concluded that if it required an intelligent mind just to study the facts of biology, “it must have required an intelligent mind to establish them.”

We may not be scientists, but we can be just as eager and interested in the wonderful lessons God puts in our paths every day. Don’t let your interest fade. There’s always something new to learn—in his Word, from the people around us, from the storms that come our way, and from the natural wonder of his magnificent creation.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

King Solomon, the author God used to write Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes, was also an ardent student of life. He approached every angle with curiosity. Try reading Ecclesiastes 10:1–12:14 today and picture him walking around, observing all the circumstances and details around him with the intention of gaining insight. Then try carrying your own pad of paper and making a few notes as you go about your ordinary day in our extraordinary world.

One Year Bible Reading

Ecclesiastes 10:1–12:14; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; Psalm 49:1-20; Proverbs 22:20-21