Life as a Student

So I'm starting back at the beginning of Paul Tripp's book, A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble. Starting from scratch. Answering the questions, however haltingly, stumblingly, and ineptly.

1. If you were to live as a student, what changes would you need to make in the way that you approach your daily life?


I feel like that's exactly what I'm doing right now – living life as a student. Trying to understand. Every day is about God-discovery and self-discovery. My days are spent reading, thinking, writing, processing... That one's pretty straightforward.


2. What, in your knowledge of God's truth, do you need to investigate further and understand more fully?


"My knowledge of God's truth"? That seems like a really strange phraseology. My knowledge of who God is? My understanding of the truth of the gospel?

I know I need to grasp the fact that God really loves me, that Jesus died not just for mankind in general but for me in particular. I need to grasp that God actually forgives me, and that the fact that I can never seem to forgive myself for my failures and stupidity is somehow sin in and of itself, in as much as it reveals my lack of trust in Him. I need to understand what it means to "cling to Christ," to have that be more than just a catchphrase that sounds good but that I don't really comprehend.

I'm not certain that all the "further investigation" in the world will lead me to those truths. I don't know that lack of knowledge is my real problem. It's in making that connection between understanding with my head and believing with my heart. Life as a student is useful for me, as far as it goes. It keeps adding pieces to the puzzle, and (to use the puzzle analogy) as I find the edges, it gets easier to see how the pieces fit together. But I can't see the big picture. At least not yet.

There. Actual answers to actual questions. At least I tried.