Is Science and Technology All We Need?

There has already been plenty of commentary on last week's State of the Union speech. My observations are a little late, I know. But I have been thinking about it and wanted to share my thoughts on one point - the educational needs of our youth.

The president wants the United States to be a country that accomplishes great things. He said that one of the biggest obstacles to our doing so is the poor state of science and math education. We rank way behind many other nations in these subjects that are so critical to innovation. Calling this a Sputnik moment (I wonder how many of our poorly educated youth know what Sputnik was?) he urged that we accept the challenge to once again become world leaders in the sciences and technology.

I think that is good, as far as it goes. I was disturbed, however, that the president did not also call for a thorough education in the humanities. Science and technology will show what we can do, but it is the humanities, and I would add theology, that show us what we ought to do.

Not everything possible to be done, even if profitable, even if they are things that provide employment and economic growth, are good things. How do we know what is good and right and worthy of our nation's energies? Through the study of philosophy and literature and history and art and, most of all, through theology.

I hope that our nation does rise to the challenge of this Sputnik moment and seeks to do great things. But I hope too that we rise to the challenge to ensure that those great things are also good.

King, Franklin and Their Common Passion

Today is the day set aside to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. and the work of the civil rights movement. All freedom loving people owe Dr. King, and the others who fought for justice during that turbulent time, a debt of gratitude. As Dr. King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We are all more free and more safe from injustice because of Dr. King's work.

But today is also the 305th birthday of another man who was, perhaps, the first truly great American, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin's list of accomplishments are unmatched by anyone before or since. He excelled as an author, businessman, scientist, inventor, legislator and diplomat. He founded the first American lending library, fire department and anti-slavery society. A school he started in Philadelphia became the University of Pennsylvania. And, of course, he played a key role in passing the Declaration of Independence and the creation of the United States of America.

From an early age and throughout his lifetime Franklin, in his own words, had a "passion for books and knowledge." He had little opportunity for formal education. So he took responsibility for his own learning and from a very young boy read anything he could get his hands on that would add to his knowledge. If only that were true of more people today.

So many of the people I know have little interest in either books or knowledge. They are content to be amused by television and video games, Utube videos and Ipod music. Does it matter as long as they are content with themselves? I think it does.

We live in a broken world, a world that is not the way it is supposed to be. The Bible teaches that God, through Jesus Christ, is redeeming the world. He is saving a people to be his own, but he also cares about making the world a better place. God cares that hungry people are feed, that sick people are healed, that pollution is cleaned up and that injustice is fought. God's people ought to have a passion for making the world a better place and doing that requires knowledge. Knowledge of ideas, of people and of the world. One of the reasons that Ben Franklin was able to accomplish so much good in his life is just because he was so passionate about books and knowledge. His learning helped enable him to make a contribution. And that brings me back to the other person remembered today, Dr. King.

Dr. King not only cared about ending the injustice of racism, he was able to formulate plans to do so. And he was able to formulate plans because he was acquainted with the great ideas of theologians and philosophers throughout the ages. He was, like Franklin, passionate about books and knowledge, and he used that knowledge for his other passion, a passion for making a difference in the world.

I pray that today we pause to think about these two great men and their passions for knowledge and contributing to the good of society. If we do, maybe we'll be inspired to turn off the game console or the TV and pick up a book.

Has God Abandoned Me To My Suffering?

Henri Nouwen wrote in Life of the Beloved that the greatest longings of our heart are expressed in the desire to belong, to be wanted, accepted, and embraced, both physically and emotionally. He wrote that, in his experience, the greatest pain of all comes from feeling rejected, ignored, despised or left alone. There is little that hurts more than when someone you loved and trusted abandons you or turns into an enemy. Nouwen wrote, the questions that come so naturally to mind are, "What's wrong with me? Why am I so unlovable?" That's what makes it hurt so much, believing there is something wrong with us, that we are unworthy of love.

I vividly remember my high school experience, when I had an incredibly hard time making friends, of asking the same questions: What's wrong with me? Why doesn't anyone want to love me? Am I so impossible to love? Few things have hurt as badly. I've heard the same questions asked by rejected spouses in counseling sessions and always asked with a cry of great anguish.

I am convinced that this is the underlying feeling many of us have when we bring some painful situation to God for his help and he seems to remain silent. "Even God has rejected me, even God does not love me." It magnifies whatever suffering we face.

The Bible promises that we believers will have an abundant life. The Bible says that God is our best friend. The Bible tells us that he is always working for our good. Then something goes terribly wrong. Our marriage falls apart. Our child goes astray. We lose our job and become destitute. We are diagnosed with a chronic, painful disease. A loved one is maimed in a life-changing accident. God has told us to come to him with our requests. He has promised to care for us. So we pray. And then we pray some. And we keep praying. But nothing gets better. Many times things get much worse. And so we begin to wonder, "What's wrong with me? Why has God rejected me? Why am I so unlovable that even God won't come to my aid?"

There is little that hurts worse than to be rejected by a spouse, lover or friend. To be rejected by God, to feel that one is so unworthy or so unlovely that even God leaves you, is the most painful thing anyone could bear. Have you ever felt like that? I have.

If you are feeling like that now, then please take heart. Though you may feel as though God has abandoned you, he has not. He is working for your good, right now, in the midst of this painful suffering. He is working in you what theologians of another generation called a most difficult providence. He is using this terrible time, in which he takes no pleasure, to mold you in ways that, if you will cooperate with him, will make you so much better.

Nouwen also wrote that when he was able to experience his own suffering "as an expression of a need for total surrender to a loving God who would fulfill the deepest desires of heart, I started to live my dependency in a radically new way...I was able to live in urgent invitation to claim God's unconditional love for myself, a love I can depend on without any fear."

When God seems silent to our cries for help, he has not abandoned us or rejected us. That's a lie. He has not found us unworthy or unlovable. He is doing the hard work of shaping us into the people we need to be so that we can more fully receive his love and care. And, that's the truth.