Editor's Column
by Mike Richeson
All I know is that I have no idea what I want to do, but I can't wait to get started.
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Bright Futures Look Very Fuzzy From Here
This time of the year is especially difficult. School is almost over for the year, and my career goals are less than clear. All I know is that I have no idea what I want to do, but I can't wait to get started. Who has time for school? The world is out there to explore; ministry doesn't happen with me sitting in class, right?
A few years ago, as I was complaining about not accomplishing anything, an older friend of mine gave me a discouraging piece of information. He said life could be segmented into three time frames. From ages 20 to 30, you figure out what you want to do. From 30 to 40, you become competent at something. From 40 to 60, you are productive.
According to that plan, I'm only a little over halfway to being productive. I don't have time to wait that long. Thomas Edison had his first patent at age 21. In 1478, at age 26, Leonardo DaVinci became a master painter. Mozart performed his first symphony, which he wrote, when he was 10. Alexander the Great took control of an empire before he was 21. John Calvin published "Institutes of the Christian Religion" when he was 26. Sir Isaac Newton became Europe's leading mathematician by the time he was 24.
All your high school teachers lied, by the way; math is completely unusable in "the real world." If you can add, subtract, multiply and do simple division, you're set. I've never had to figure out a sinusoidal curve in my entire life.
The list of young people who profoundly impacted the world goes on and on. Sadly, I'm nowhere to be found on that list. I'm not a scientist, I can't draw a straight line with a ruler and empire building is tough to accomplish these days. Am I destined to a mediocre life in a cubicle only to die without great achievements?
Listening to many students, I don't think I'm alone in my restlessness. I can see the nervous twitches in the graduating seniors. They look as if they are stumbling toward the gaping mouth of the "real world." Six months from now, the school loan payments begin. Scary. What are seniors going to do? How are they going to impact the world?
If you are bored, just ask the soon-to-be graduates what they plan to do after graduation. Their eyes get wide and they stutter. Seriously, that joke never gets old.
I also hear that a number of students don't plan on finishing school at all. "There is too much ministry to do," they say. And so they leave, somehow thinking that education is a hindrance. It's easy to come to Multnomah and feel the burden of a lost world and rush out to help. The weight is terrible and so is the wait, but we must prepare.
Pastor Donald Barnhouse once said, "If I knew the Lord was coming in three years, I'd spend two years studying and one year preaching."
That long-term mindset is almost nonexistent in today's college student, including me. We are so eager to get on with life that we fail to prepare ourselves for it. Sound biblical training is an absolute necessity for every Christian. Here we are at one of the best Bible-training centers in the United States, and we can't wait to get it over with.
Multnomah is worth the work, the debt, the pain of growth, the joys and the struggles. Whenever people ask me what I think of MBC, I tell them the parable of the pearl. Students pay a lot of money to be here, and it's worth every penny.
So don't begrudge your time in school. God gave us this wonderful place and skilled professors. Zeal to save the world is commendable, but take the time to absorb everything you can and take school seriously. Then go change the world.
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