Spiritual Readings                "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

Jan. 9, 2001

I have always loved to learn new things that interest me.  In some ways I would say I’m a perpetual student.  I would like to be in school all my life.  (That is some parents’ nightmare, that their child will indeed be in school all their life and the parents will be footing the bill!)  In his book “The Reinvention of Work” Matthew Fox quotes Rabbi Abraham Heschel, one of the great Jewish thinkers of the last century.  Heschel says

 “Learning is holy, an indispensable form of purification and well as an ennoblement.  It is not merely preparation for life.  Learning IS life, a supreme experience of living, a climax of existence.  Termination of education is the beginning of despair.”

 I’m sure there are young people who hope school will not go on forever.  But sometimes school and learning are different things.  I think what Heschel is talking about is the excitement of learning how the world works, what makes other people tick, why there is air.  I think of learning in some ways as the continuing unfolding of the glory of God in my life. 

May God bless you this day with some new bit of insight into the wonder and beauty of the world and each other.

Grace & Peace to you all

Geoff