Roll Up the Sleeves of Your Thinking

A New Journey Begins

I became a Christian when I was in the Navy. After my enlistment ended, I returned home to go to college. Within a few months, I had enrolled at the local community college and started taking classes. But before long, I realized this wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to think; I had developed a love of reading. So what was wrong? I had only been a Christian for two years and was still an infant in my understanding. I was only on my second round of reading the Bible. What I was learning at school was not helping me to think Biblically. I needed to be discipled in my understanding, to be taught how to think. A mature Christian mentor challenged me with a question: “How are you taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ?”

The Search for Christian Thinking

There were countless discussions, debates, and, sadly, even a few arguments with classmates and professors. Unsure of my next step, I reached out to Dr. Joseph Pipa from Greenville Theological Seminary for guidance. He suggested Geneva College. During my visit, I kept hearing a phrase that intrigued me: “Christian worldview.” This was an educational vision I could get behind. At Geneva, they wouldn’t just teach me chemistry, math, and history; they would also disciple me on how to think Christianly about these subjects. How did math display the glory of an orderly God? How did chemistry reveal the complexity of the created universe? How did history show nations and people groping for significance in a world marred by sin?

Wrestling with Ideas

At Geneva, I read books I did not like and confronted challenging ideas. We read the classic works of various eras, stared sin in the face, and wrestled with how to evaluate them Biblically. We didn’t shy away from Marx; we wrestled with his Das Kapital and evaluated it by God's word. They had us study genocides and utopian philosophies like Voltaire's Candide and Bellamy's Looking Backward. We were assigned the heretics to read, then we were expected to be able to explain what they were meaning. But here's where things became interesting and worth every moment. We were challenged to explain how we should respond Biblically. Our professors didn’t shield us from worldly ideas; instead, they grounded us in the Scriptures as our foundational truth and equipped us to evaluate competing truth claims throughout history. But they also blessed us with readings from some of the greatest Christian writings. We delved into the works of Christian giants like Augustine, Calvin, and Edwards, grappling with their insights and their imperfections. None of them was perfect, no, not one. Yet, the Lord blessed us by learning to wrestle through ideas. We were challenged to think Biblically about ages past and our culture today.

The Struggle of Thinking Christianly

College was no walk in the park. Peter says, “Gird up the loins of your understanding, be sober.” We had to roll up our sleeves and set daily reading goals. Learning to think Christianly took effort—late nights spent reading, reading, reading, followed by mornings pleading with God for understanding and discernment. Then there were hours and hours of analysis in writing papers, proofreading, and being challenged by our teachers on our thought processes and conclusions. But I was always grateful for the guiding light of truth. God’s word was the foundation, the standard of 24-karat gold against which everything had to be tested as genuine or full of dross.

Discernment: A Lifelong Process

Recently, a woman at church asked me to pray for her discernment. She spoke of reading Scripture, theology books, and other Christian materials. I sensed her longing for a day when she could stop reading and say she had achieved discernment. But discernment isn’t a destination; it’s a verb hiding in noun form. It’s the ongoing ability to judge well. We don’t get a break from discerning in this life. God has called us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Satan would love nothing more than to see us soak in the world thoughtlessly.

The Ongoing Call to Think

So here’s the takeaway: it is your blessing not to be done learning. You are commanded by God to fix your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Until Jesus comes again, you are called to think and judge Biblically. Until glorification, you have the blessing of treasuring God’s word and evaluating the world around you by His truth. There’s no arrival in Christian thinking. In this life, Christians aren’t afforded the right to stop thinking. Roll up the sleeves of your understanding and be sober.