Living the Dream

Back when I was a college sophomore  ("sophomore" being a Latin term for "smart idiot")  I wanted to be a writer/professor.  I think that had a lot to do with two of my favorite writer/professors--C S Lewis and Francis Schaeffer.   They both smoked pipes and wore tweet jackets and were both very, very smart. 

But that wasn't the best part.  Lewis and Schaeffer were Christians who got paid to sit around and have great ideas.  Students like me on college campuses all over the world read their books, sought out their opinions and marveled at their smartness. The sheer force of their intellect shook the Christian world,  made the secularists  quake in their boots.   It was a grand life.

Francis Schaeffer in particular was cool, in a geeky kind of way.   He lived in a chalet in Switzerland where students traveled for long distances to came to marvel at his wisdom. He wore a goatee and a haircut like George Washington.  He wore knee breeches, too,  and had a soulful,  mildly depressed look all the time which told everyone he was a deep thinker.  I wanted to be him. 

That was forty years ago.  Since then I've married, become ordained, served five churches, raised a family, and held down a job. 

Now,  at fifty-eight I've actually become a writer and a professor!  While the world has not exactly flocked to learn from me, in my own little way, I'm  living my dream and having fun doing it. It's a great gig. I have time to think deep thoughts, people don't look at me weird any more if I use big words, and I actually do wear a goatee. I even get to hold deep conversations with people who are interested in what interests me. 

School isn't the real world, though.  When you face the  reality of life outside the ivory tower, things  look a whole lot different.   College is a great place to prepare for the world, but it is also a great place to hide from it.

Colleges can't stand alone.  They need fundraisers, donors,  accountants, workmen, plumbers,  lawn mowers,  farmers, salesmen,  printers,  painters, and garbage men who do their jobs so we can sit in class and wax philosophical.  We depend upon our students making great sacrifices to better themselves and their children.  I could not be here if it were not for the sacrifices of my parents, and the patience of my wife who had picked me up and cheered me on when fo r thousandth time I have been ready to quit. 

I am also humbled to remember that a two-thousand-year -old Jewish carpenter who was smarter than I am told us  not to serve ourselves, but to serve the least of the earth, and treat all as better than myself.

I don't want to stand aloof some ivory tower.  I want to stand beneath those I teach ,  supporting and uplifting  them.  I want to use what gifts God gave me to give something back to Him and especially to those who gave me the privilege of doing what I do. 

I'm a child of God, no better or worse than any of my brothers or sisters.   It's a privilege to see the wonderful ways God created us all, and to marvel at the gifts of others.

Even so,  it's an awful lot of fun to be who I am, living out  a lifelong dream.