On March 20th, the birds begin chirping as all of creation breaks into the song and dance of new beginnings and fresh starts. I feel like I have been sleeping through life all winter-- hibernating my way through the snow and ice and cold winds. My mind has been foggy, my vision clouded, my emotions dull, but as spring blossoms into view, I feel hope within rising again and I have a clearer vision of who I am and what I desire to do and become in the coming year.
As a child, I always looked forward to the onset of spring because it meant that spring break and summer vacation were on their way to release me from my school house prison-- at least, it at times seemed to be a prison. I have since come to realize the beauty of Christian higher education and its deep implications for our minds, our hearts, our culture, and our communities. The reality is that many Christians today fail to comprehend the degree to which secularized philosophy is shaping their thinking.
This infiltration of the mind by modern and postmodern philosophy, in many cases, already has established itself so discreetly in the psyche of the Christian individual that even the seemingly mundane decisions of every day life are rooted in a secular worldview. I am convinced that unless we train ourselves and our children in the truth of the Word of God and commit our lives to Him and to His church, the culture will claim us and our offspring as its captives in the wake of ever increasing secularization. Certainly we cannot expect our children to grow into adult Christian thinkers when our own lives appear to mimic those of the dying generation surrounding us than an to imitate the resurrected Christ.
"We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise.
We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."
- C.S. Lewis,
Speaking of the educating of our youth in an excerpt from his essay "Men Without Chests"
in The Abolition of Man
From the perspective of a Christian worldview, the problem, however, is not that the individual inherently denies or lacks the freedom to choose what is best for him day to day and thus must be convinced to choose what he already naturally desires. On the contrary, humans are constantly struggling to attain what they deem to be freedom, yet so often the "freedom" to choose leads to enslavement in the form of addictions, idolatry, pride, and ultimately death because we choose not the worship of God but rather the worship of ourselves.
A Christian worldview recognizes the corruption of the individual's ability to choose what is best for him, since sin is mercilessly clouding the human mind from fully conceiving who God is and what His plan is for us, which is ultimately and always best for us. Thus, we cannot choose even something as simple as the best meal for us to eat, the best clothes for us to wear, or conversations for us to have without our decisions being corrupted by our own sinful desires.
If we cannot recognize the truth and identify our own sinful natures, we will necessarily fall prey to the secularized declarations of the autonomous self, deconstructionism, and moral relativism-- in essence, post-modernity in its purest form. In other words, when secularism remains unchecked in our lives, it results in us becoming more self-centered individuals and less capable of identifying anything as absolute truth, with a tendency of buying into many of the ideas that the our culture is promoting regarding moral tolerance and so-called Christian bigotry.
In a post-modern worldview, there are no grounds on which to reason that something is right or wrong because all truth is true for you but never fully true in the same way for anyone else-- resulting in a "to each his own" mentality that runs contrary to Scriptural truth.
Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
By reflecting on God's truth, made manifest to us in His Word and solid Christian community, we can sharpen our minds and hearts to apprehend the secular notions which have gripped us and, in turn, begin more intentionally making decisions that honor Christ. This is not to say that every decision must be preceded by a Bible study, but simply that unless we are consistently spending time in the Word and in Christian community, we will not be able to recognize the Truth from the lies with which we are so easily aligning ourselves.
Ultimately, our thoughts and actions are always being shaped by either good or evil, Truth or deception, God or Satan. Let us choose life that we might truly live through Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Check out these great books on Christian worldview and reclaiming our minds for Christ:
The Gospel & the Mind... Brad Green
Letters to a Diminished Church... Dorothy Sayers
(A Collection of Essays from Her Lifetime)
Read the Bible for Life: Your Guide to Understanding and Living God's Word...George Guthrie
Renewing Minds: Serving Church & Society through Christian Higher Education... David S. Dockery
Shaping the Christian Worldview: The Foundation of Higher Education... David S. Dockery
The Abolition of Man... C.S. Lewis
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