Saturday, July 25, 2015

On The Desire Of Knowledge: An Examination

I recently have had the question posed to me in regards to why I value knowledge and the pursuit of acquiring such knowledge so highly. Initially the question took me back a little, as I have always thought everyone has that thirst for knowing more about things they know little about. Apparently, this is not the case. 

I began henceforth to put some thought into answering this question. Why do I value education and learning so highly? As far as I can remember I have always desired to learn; from the time before I could read and taught myself to recognize patterns of writing so I could distinguish one side of a record from the other. 

As I began to analyze why, I began to realize that I desire knowledge because in a accumulating ideas, concepts, and statistics about a wide variety of topics allows me to 1) understand how people's minds work and function differently than my own and 2) connect with and have conversations with those people. 

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 speaks of desiring to be "all things to all people" and in collecting data about a variety of topics, areas of interest and historical records, I can speak to the interests of many different people. I can conduct somewhat intelligent conversations with people from many different background stories. As a leader in my Church, this is quite important in building relationships with people I encounter on a first time basis on regular occasions. 

While there will certainly be some interests that I have more of an abundance of thirst to develop and expand on more than others, I still try to take some interest in as many topics as I can. Often though, the more I learn about one topic or another, the more desire I have to expand my knowledge of that topic. It all basically seems to boil down to one simple truth I have learned about myself, I love to learn; I don't even have a legitimate other reason sometimes. I feel enriched when a new idea, original thought, or concept traverses my radar! 

So friends, my wish for you is that you keep on learning! Pursue knowledge to connect better with people and develop deeper relationships. Pursue knowledge to understand God's creation better! Dream big about what else there is to learn, and keep an open heart and mind to how God may use your mind to reveal new truth to you, and others around you!