Earlier this year I made a commitment to read through the entire Bible in a year.  Too often many of us begin with gusto reading Genesis and keeping up with Exodus.  Once we hit the book of Leviticus, we’re starting to wonder why all the repetition and rules for cleaning and sacrifices.  After a while, all the chapters sound the same.  If you persevere through this book, the book of Numbers will be the hill to die on, figuratively speaking.  As the name of the book suggests, there are a lot of numbers.  In addition, the repetition of whining and complaining from the Israelites become annoying.  Again, all the chapters sound the same.  I hope I’m not the only one who feels this way.  Perhaps I’m the only one bold enough to admit it?  So, what is one to do?

I began listening to Mark Dever’s overview sermon on the book of Numbers and have found it to be tremendously helpful in understanding the background, the context, and the theme of the book.  Rather than thinking the book to be dry, Dever’s message gave me the encouragement and the inspiration to read with much anticipation and excitement.  If any of you feel the same as I did, I’d encourage you to listen to Dever’s message.  Not only did he preach through the book of Numbers, he preached through all the books of the Bible (which you can find here).   I’m planning on listening to the corresponding message when I read through each book of the Bible so as to better understand the context, background, and the theme.

Why am I talking about college again?  Remember my Large Families and College post?  The reason I’m bringing this topic up again is because I came across Voddie Baucham’s post Searching for an affordable college alternative.  Please click over and read it carefully.

(Don’t read below until you’ve clicked & read Voddie’s post!!!)

I can’t help but agree with Voddie on all five points he makes:

1. Most BA Degrees Aren’t Worth The Paper They Are Written On
2. Four Years Is Too Much Time to Waste
3. $80,000 (room & board/State School) to &250,000 (room & board/Ivy League) is Too Much Money to Spend
4. College is Not For Everyone
5. Most Universities Are Philosophically Antagonistic to Christianity

I come from a culture that deeply values a college degree.  A mere bachelor’s degree is nothing to boast about because it’s a common understanding that you should at least earn a bachelor’s degree (at a prestigious university, nevertheless).  This, of course, means that one should continue to pursue higher degrees in order to attain desirable initials such as MD, PhD, JD, etc.  I fear that many of my fellow Asian-Americans fall into the deception that earning such degrees is a must without understanding the cost, whether monetary or time-wise.

I am not arguing that one should not pursue a higher degree, as a general rule, but that one should at least think about college carefully in terms of cost of tuition and living, college debt, and potential earnings.  The five points Voddie points out can be hard to swallow and may be shocking to hear, but if you are considering college, or even (especially) expensive and/or lengthy graduate school degree(s), think long and hard about his points and evaulate them against your own experience or perception.

One final point: learning is something I’m continually impressing upon my children as a lifelong pursuit, whether they attend college or not.  One should not equate college with learning (and far too often, those two experiences fail to intersect!).