Modern Idols (Part II)

In the last devotional, I stated that the enemy is not going to trap us with the same form of idolatry that he ensnared the people in Biblical times. He finds things that we value in our times and in our current culture. The key to finding idolatry in our lives is to find what we value and the extent we change our priorities to obtain what is valuable to us.

Higher Education

We are blessed in this country to have many options for education. There is a plethora of schools from public to private education and from junior colleges to Ivy league schools that are available to those who seek higher level of education. However, the entrance to many well known schools has become so difficult, that it is creating a subtle class system between those who can make it and those who cannot.

For some believers, higher education has turned into idolatry. Some students apply to over twenty schools in the hope of getting to their “reach” schools but finding themselves rejected over and over again because they reached too far. The parents are not doing any better. As a matter of fact, those rejection letters hurt some parents more than it hurts the students. When finally students choose a school from the array of good options available to them, they still feel dejected because they did not reach their dream school!

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 1 Timothy 6:20

Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. John 7:18 

In addition, our education system is run by many ultra liberal professors who do not mind espousing their atheistic or humanistic ideologies as facts to students. Since the students lack experience and knowledge, they are easily impressionable by the “brilliant” professors who seem to tell the truth about the world. What we find that many children who grew up in Christian households, begin to regress spiritually after spending four years in a world that is dominated by new age and godless thinking. Why do we do this? It is all in the name of getting superior education, so our students can have good options for careers when they graduate.

Does a superior education that dampens one’s faith worth it? Is that special piece of paper from the elite school worth losing your faith for it? 

Education is certainly the idol of our modern times. There is much pressure for students  to perform to the point of developing health problems, identity issues, and suicidal behaviors. As believers, do we handle education any differently than the world? Do we perceive people more valuable based on their level of education or where they received their education from?