Learning is life-affirming process

By Bob Clark
Pharr and San Juan UMCs
As I write, I am sitting at the desk in the common room of my dorm at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. I have been here two days, and already my head is filled with swirling thoughts. Actually, the word “jumble” comes to mind. My head is filled with a jumble of thoughts. One definition of “jumble” is a muddled mass: an untidy or disorganized mass of objects, images or ideas. That is an accurate description of my state of mind after a couple of days here at Perkins.
Later, probably long after I return home, all the objects, images and ideas will settle into nice orderly layers. Like sediment on the bottom of the sea, they will eventually solidify and turn to stratified stone formations. I hope that doesn’t happen too soon, though. While clarity and order are attractive, there is something to be said for occasionally stirring up the sediment from the bottom of the pool. Who knows? There may be a few gold nuggets down there hidden in the mud.
In thinking about the way that I am stretched and challenged by the theological education I receive at Perkins, I realize just how life-affirming the process of learning truly is. I am never more alive than when encountering new thoughts and ideas for the first time. I am never more confident about my own beliefs, my own thoughts, even my own identity than when I am forced to examine them in the light of beliefs and ideas that challenge them.
If there were only one thing that I could share with each of you from my experience at Perkins, it would be the joy that comes from stretching oneself to the point of letting go of an idea or belief once tightly held. The joy of letting go of a part of what I thought was me or mine to grasp a new and perhaps better idea or identity is an ultimate expression of aliveness.
How did Jesus put it? “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39 NRSV).