What are We to Do?
Be a Disciple
Why Learn About God?
Good question. To address this basic question, let’s use an analogy you can probably relate to. Imagine when you were a fairly young child. Picture this life at home with your parents or guardians and you live in a neighborhood with other young children about your age. You enjoy going outside and playing with your friends. Your parents provide you meals when you need them and life is generally good.
One day your mom and dad tell you it’s time for you to start going to school so you can learn. Your concept of learning is limited to learning to play new games with your friends, or so you think. You don’t even realize you have already learned to walk, to use the bathroom instead of a diaper, and even to talk and understand others at a basic level. Your parents tell you it will take up most of your day 5 days a week. This may not sound so good to a kid used to playing with friends all the time. You may not understand why you need to go to school.
When you express your displeasure, your parents explain that school will offer an organized way to learn a variety of new skills that you will need in order to live a long, successful and happy life. One day you may become a parent yourself and you will need to know how to be an adult and teach your children too. At this young age, you don’t fully comprehend everything your parents are telling you, but you also know you don’t have a lot of choice in the matter.
You may not understand the value of what is being offered. You may feel it will take away from your pleasure you are currently experiencing. Why can’t things just stay as they are? Regardless of how you feel, life isn’t that way. It’s best to learn how to get along in life the way it is designed, not the way we wish it were.
Learning about God is the exact same thing. It is learning about life and how to live a successful life, at least from God’s perspective. God wants you to learn what His perspective is so you will understand the value of what you are being offered. God is like your parents in this analogy. Your parents want the best for you and know what you need, even if you don’t. They know you need to learn to get along in the world as an adult. God knows you need to learn His desires so you can be in an eternal relationship with Him. Your parents brough you into this world and have a responsibility for you and love you very much. God created you and loves you very much as well. God wants you to learn and has given you the textbook of life, the Bible. God offers Himself as the teacher through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
God not only created you, but this entire universe for the purpose of offering all of us a chance to learn and grow and accept Him as the creator and savior. We are in a lifelong class, like it or not and God is the one and only teacher. With that said, don’t you think it is a good idea to learn all you can about God?
