With All Your Mind

In 2nd Timothy 2, we read the exhortation of the apostle Paul about diligent application of the Word
of God:
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

The King James Version uses the word, "study" in verse 15.  I believe that Christians are to develop our minds - filling them with God's truth, thinking about and reasoning about what we find in the Word, and considering how we might apply His truth to our own lives.  Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive - our faith perspective can affect our approach to critical issues; our application of the Word of God can be useful in addressing the challenges we encounter.

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Jesus was having a moment of interaction with one of the religious groups of His day, the Pharisees, who had heard that Christ had, according to Matthew 22, persuasively "silenced" another group, the Saducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.  The chapter states:
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

Note the 3 areas Jesus referred to here...heart, soul, and mind.

Do you sometimes feel you want to escape from the erosion of values in our nation and the emotion of troubling circumstances?   Well, there are some college students that are seeking a safe place, but not in the way that you commonly hear about - they're trying to renew their minds with God's Word.

Meet the Center for Christian Study.  According to ReligionNews.com:

The Center for Christian Study at the University of Virginia has been beckoning students since 1976 as a place to cram, but also as a place to explore the relationship between faith and learning.

The WiFi is free. The library has a few desktop computers (not to mention 12,000 books). And, of course, there’s a kitchen.

Christian students come here to socialize, listen to a lecture, participate in a book study or a small group, get mentoring or counseling. Founded to serve students spiritually and intellectually, the center attests to an evangelical willingness to take on science and the liberal arts.

This "Christian study model" has now been established at 24 campuses across America, according to the article, "including the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell, Yale, the University of Wisconsin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."

The story goes on to say:

Study centers, however, want to cast off the perception that evangelicals are anti-intellectual or anti-science. Protestants, after all, established most of the universities known today as the Ivy League, and these centers want to restore respect for learning and scholarship.

Drew Trotter, executive director of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, is quoted as saying, "We love knowledge and are grateful for the ways universities disseminate knowledge and work on integrating knowledge for the betterment of society. We appreciate that..."

A center might be involved in sponsoring a speaker or publishing a journal, and a UVA group from its center has partnered with an atheist and agnostic group to study and discuss various works together.  

The article relates:

At the North Carolina Study Center, a conference last year brought community leaders in business and academia to talk to students about how they might live faithfully after college and contribute to the broader world.

“Universities might do a great job of teaching — here are instruments to use to flourish as an individual — without much discussion of what does that flourishing actually mean or look like,” said Madison Perry, executive director of the North Carolina Study Center. “That’s where I see a space for well-informed, traditioned voices that can say, ‘here’s what we think that means.’”

UNC student Parker Marshall is planning a journal originating at that campus study center. He said about the center, “Broadly, it’s a place I can pursue Christianity in a way that engages my mind..."

Sarah Macris, who attends UVA, "said she too appreciates the spirit of open inquiry mixed with warmth at the center." She stated, “The goal isn’t to shut down discussion by how right you are,” adding, “It’s a conversation in which you love and care about one another in pursuit of truth.”

This study center concept certainly seems like a refreshing and challenging opportunity for students to develop their minds.  And, when we consider that we are called to love God with all our mind, this can set an example for each of us to think Biblically.   

We should look for ways in which we can stimulate and, as Romans 12 suggests, renew our minds, which results in transformation.  This starts at the Word of God - spending time in the Bible, perhaps in a regular reading plan, which can open up the door for further study of and meditation in the Word.  Other resources are apparently available through these centers, too, and we can be motivated to take advantage of what God has provided so that we may know Him better and to think with the mind of Christ.

And, this also sets an example for what reasonable, Christlike discussion might look like.  People can be so combative with one another, and when you participate in interaction that is civil and respectful, there can be an effective sharing of ideas, and it can even present an evangelistic opportunity when you are talking with a non-believer.