People sometimes ask me what it is like to be working on a doctorate degree. I think society sometimes places a higher value on higher education than whatever value should actually be placed there, but I am learning some things as I progress along this path. It has been quite a journey, so far.
One of the strange things about this type of doctorate work is that when seemingly everyone else in the world is doing mainstream things (such as watching TV, or surfing the internet, or working on hobbies, or recreating as they wish), I seem to spend all of my free time (outside of work, and spending time with Julie and my kids) either reading or writing about things that most people don't even think about. This has proven to be quite an interesting period of life, then. I read and write pretty much from 9pm to 1am almost every night. I also seem to read and write just about every spare second I can free up during the day as well. It is definitely a shock to the "regular life" system.
So, what is the purpose of working toward a doctorate degree? I first hope that God will continue to equip and empower me to make a difference in this world for the Kingdom of God. Shouldn't we all be trying to learn more about how God is moving in this world, and then join him there? Also, I am a teacher by nature. I am designed to take things in and then tell as many people as I can about what I learned. Hopefully this degree will continue to equip me as a teacher. Finally, God had made me curious as an adult. I would bet that none of my childhood teachers would have guessed that I would have the academic drive to work toward a doctorate degree. I did not start achieving in education until I was twenty years old. God has designed me to have a curious nature, to want to understand truth, and to have the desire to live life on the edge against the grain of what mainstream society would have planned for me (in America, I should work up the corporate ladder, buy a nice comfortable home, find whatever cheap pleasures I can find in the entertainment world, and then settle into a life of doing what "the man" requires of me until I somehow retire comfortably).
Working on a doctorate degree at BGU has required me to exit the matrix of typical American life, but I would not trade it in for anything. I am so thankful for the work that God is doing in my life, and how he is opening my eyes to his plans for our world. What's the big deal with a little sleep deprivation, and a little bit of shock to my comfortable American worldview, and to learning more about how God is moving in our world? I am truly blessed.
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