new church life: november/december 2015
Sometimes we question the point
of school. We question just having to sit
there and study and learn. “When do I
get to do something that is practical?”
Well, that’s good. We all have that
desire to be useful and put things into
practice – to DO something. And we
have a very strong, built-in desire for
freedom. And that is by Divine design.
Anything that is really going to become
part of who we are has to be chosen in
freedom and done from a place of full
rational sight. There is a tension there
because we all want to be free.
But the adults in our life don’t
always agree that we are ready for that.
They say we are in a development stage.
Well, you are in a developmental stage of your life where you are working
on developing and perfecting your rational mind. The rational is that part of
your mind that sees evidence in the world around us, the things of nature, of
sensory evidence. Then it compares that with what we know in our spiritual
mind – the truths we know, the information we have learned about higher
things. And it compares those two sets of information and tries to make a
choice – hopefully, a choice that is good.
I like the airplane analogy, especially sitting here on the grounds of this
church and this religious institution, because the airplane has that ability to
rise above our normal plane of life – to rise above the ordinary and view things
from a higher perspective. Education does that for sure.
Think of all the incredible things that one can learn and create. You can be
given a chance to express yourself through different mediums: maybe it’s art,
or music, or poetry, or dance. Or to be able to imagine incredible possibilities
through mathematics, science, physics and biology. Or be carried away by
compelling events in human history, and take some of those lessons you
learned and use them for life today. Or learn about strategy, sportsmanship
and teamwork through sports. Or open up to new cultures by learning a new
language. There are so many other things I could talk about.
Even more amazing than that to me are the higher truths – the spiritual
truths – we can learn that help us: to start to understand who the Creator of
the Universe is; what the plan for human life is; what is the purpose of being.
We are taught that we are not born for our own sake but for the sake of others.
Just think about that for a moment: “I am here, not just for me, but I am here
The Heavenly Doctrines
given through Emanuel
Swedenborg say,
“All education is an
opening of the way.”
The questions then
are: “Where are you
going?”“What way
are you headed?”
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