I live the life of the mind and spirit. I believed in the aspirations of the dedicated student, but did not know until after the death of my wife the extent of the treasure that context would mean to me. In retirement, and now living alone, I am taken up each day in a fulfillment of the ripening of mind and spirit. The action is a large factor contributing to health, inner gratification, meaning and understanding that enhances daily experience including spiritual enlargement found in Scripture and prayer. It prompted me to write these Pages that I hope will contribute something to the lives of my children and their families – and students, perhaps anyone seeking life as God would have it for them. That life includes rightful responsibility to self, family, community and the world. Such an orientation, which I like to call context, is guided by the desire to fulfill the plan of God for life, meaning and immortality. Life in this context can weather the contradictions, tensions, disappointments, threats, even all the good things and errors that nature and life offer. Good things can be bad if they occupy us to the omission of the sense of balance in our lives. Even so, Christian life is commonly understood as cultivating a peculiar people for God. In this meaning, peculiar relates to different than even the balanced and effective person in the natural context of a good life.
Attending college I learned about the liberal arts tradition, which is essentially that an education is for the development of the person more than a preparation for an occupation. This does not mean that preparation for occupation is not a vital factor, but that it is made secondary to the personal higher, inner purpose.
I bought into that historical position, and have never regretted it. If anything, the conviction has grown larger that young persons need to sense that ideal of education. Out of the orientation they become better students, they are happier with what they receive in intellectual/life direction and meaning. It serves very well in old age when the world has, in general, passed by the person. In the context, persons do better in whatever occupation they choose, even if that occupation is to sell a product, or cut down trees, or fish the seas, or maneuver a tractor. When the day is done they can read a book, and have the background to choose a book worth reading for the cultivation of wisdom and understanding. This partially fulfills the simple directive given to Adam to dress the garden (work) and know it (education).
For me the above summarizes a major theme for my family. It is prompted by this date because the date is the birthday of my youngest child, within a decade of standard retirement years, but now busy with her husband in Christian ministry. All my children, and their mates, earned college degrees as part of their preparation for living life – a large factor in gaining maturity. Each took a different direction in occupations, but they gained the primary and wider perception of the meaning of life, in education for life. The accent is important, with values, meaning, service, beliefs, and the fulfillment of the individual becoming first purpose. Arguments over theories, wealth, search of nature and the universe, and the various other motivations become secondary for retired elders, and ought to be, for the Christian mind. These last are important, and should have high priority for society, but not to be made superior for individual life experience. The state owes citizens the best it can provide, especially in freedom, and that should include instruction in good citizenship. The individual senses the meaning of excellence so to account to self, to a life that ends well, and to God who determines life conclusion. Scripture accents human accounting. It is, for most part, individualistic, but extends itself into community (family and neighbors) so is not selfish pursuit. Wisdom is a high spiritual goal. It is meaningful for service.
Life is commonly lived in atmospheres of contention – differences, great and small, leading to debate (good when properly engaged, bad in wrangling); to search for community equality (good when there is some consensus, bad when conflicted); to meaning and application (good when fair forms of meaning are considered, bad when prejudiced); and, to meaning and values for self and community (good when sincerely evaluated, bad when overly politicized). We seem clumsy in the world’s politicization. Wise persons seek to share with all in God’s common and divine graces. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020