I recently talked with author and speaker Ann Voskamp about why she is part of a grad school cohort at Wheaton College.
Ed: Why did you decide at your place and stage as a writer and a leader, to go back to school?
Ann: I think there were a few catalysts.
First, ultimately, we are as helpful teachers as we are humble learners. Leaning into a kneeled posture of humility to receive leaves us better positioned to pour out more thoughtfully.
The professors at Wheaton walk in a brilliant humility and to listen and learn from their experiences, their readings, their perspective, and to bring that wealth of wisdom that has been tried and tested by time to our own lives is needful and transformative.
As we are watered by the writings and teachings of the faithful who have poured out before us, the hope is that our own lives would yield far better.
Second, as a mother of seven children, deeply committed to building a community of readers and inquisitive minds, we have always believed that, as it is widely said, “Education is not about merely filling a bucket. It’s about ultimately lighting a match.” That match burns hot the rest of our lives.
Every parent, every person in leadership, needs to model what it’s like to have a voracious appetite to learn more of the ways of Christ, to be intentionally growing in Christ, to be a lifelong learner at the feet of those who have gone before, to be lifelong learner in community.
Third, I think that the Christian life is a life of discipleship, so how are we humbly positioning ourselves to be discipled by great books and great teachers?
How are we, in our limping brokenness, intentionally joining the great cloud of witnesses, to learn from great thinkers, to sit at the feet of spiritual giants?
The body of Christ has historically always been a seedbed of culture-shapers: Copernicus, Kepler, Pascal, …
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