Things I Learned on the Way to a PhD
I told my family that I would do a cartwheel upon him finishing his PhD. Conversely, he wrote a few words from the hubs regarding finishing his PhD (insert theme music: "Two steps forward, I take two steps back....we come together cause opposites attract." Thank you Paula Adbul):
About Family
and Character
My kids don’t care what a Ph.D is. In
fact, they are confused why I can’t prescribe medicine. They just want to know
when Dad will be finished studying.
My wife is happy
with a husband who loves her, even if I didn’t have graduate degrees.
Insecurity
frequently drives Ph.D studies as much as any other motive.
Having a Ph.D doesn’t make you
smart. It just means you have suck.it.up, a lot of information, and probably a
fair bit of pride.
While a Ph.D can make someone proud,
it can also make someone more humble because you realize how little you
actually know. Ph.Ds don’t take away sin. Only Christ does. If anything, they
make you a bigger hypocrite, because you learn more than you can never quite
live up too.
Balance requires
great humility.
Simply getting
praise for having degrees doesn’t satisfy the deeper desire to feel loved.
No one can do everything well. Find
your niche. Be content with the fact you have weaknesses and limitations. It’s
ok. You are not God. With that awareness, do what you do with excellence.
Having a Ph.D is
not as precious as being a child of God.
Studying
Scripture and Theology
A number of theological ideas are
not so clear-cut. Many doctrines that a pastor affirms with vehement dogmatism
just aren’t as obvious as he makes them sound.
Christians need to humbly have a
“both-and” attitude and not simply an “either-or” mentality. Nuance is
important. We can’t just write people off as simply “playing with words.” Words
matter.
Christians with Ph.Ds need to be
careful not to “pull rank” when discussing the Bible. Otherwise, people will
trust you and not Scripture. I plead for Christian PhDs to show people the
biblical text.
Both laypersons and even
“professional” Christians (pastors, etc.) are really intimidated
by the Bible. As a result, they forgot what they know in everyday life, like
what “because” and “therefore” mean. I wish they would know that knowing Greek
by itself doesn’t make someone a Bible expert.
Just because people are really smart
and they’re the “good guys” (i.e. people in my camp) doesn’t make them right.
For that matter, those whom I really disagree with are still full of good
ideas, even if they apply them wrong (in my opinion). Even heretics are
persuasive for some reason . . . they have just enough truth to get gain a
hearing.
Studying the
Bible and loving Jesus are not necessarily the same thing.
Christians are far too angry when it
comes to theological matters. Likewise, conservative Christians are just as
likely to close one eye to inconvenient passages as are liberals.
About Getting
a Ph.D
A Ph.D is not worth simply having the
title itself. You should want to accomplish something with it; otherwise, it’s
not worth the hard work and sacrifices you and your family will have to give.
After my first M.A. degree, my wife didn’t call me “master.” After earning my
M.Div, she didn’t call be “divine.” After the Ph.D, she’ll still just call be
“Brad” and my kids will call me “Dad.” And I’m very happy for it.
More Christians need Ph.Ds because
there are a lot of problems needing to be solved but so many people tend to be
a bit anti-intellectual when it comes to the Christian life. As a result, they
become anti-theological and functionally close to being anti-biblical (though
they would certainly take offense at this last sentence).
Writing well is harder than you
think. It is an underdeveloped skill in this day of Facebook, Twitter and text
messaging.
Diligence in study and writing can
be a great labor of love . . . even if it doesn’t look exactly like the way
someone else loves.
Getting a Ph.D is means, not an end.
You need to write and expect people to criticize something you say. Changing
the way someone thinks is not an easy or quick process. Criticism means they
are actually thinking about what you say. The truth is . . . your labor is most
likely to have its biggest effect either behind your back or after you’ve died.
This is good. Otherwise, you would be self-deluded with your “greatness.”
It’s hard to find people to help
proof read your stuff. People just don’t have time . . . and that’s ok. Therefore,
I am especially grateful for those who have been so gracious to be dialogue
partners with me.
Misc
Typing classes in high school should
be Pass/Fail and not affect your GPA. I took a typing class but for fear of
lowering my GPA, I never learned to type correctly since I could peck keys
faster that doing it correctly. Learning to type would have been very helpful
in this process. I still type using only about 5-6 of my fingers.
SEBTS is a
fantastic school.
Despite its many challenges, ADHD
has its advantages. One of its lesser-known manifestations is “hyperfocus.”
Very helpful when trying to maintain a full time job, raise five kids, stay
married flourish in marriage, and finish a Ph.D within a decade.
Spellchecker on MS Word
automatically shuts itself off after so many words are either misspelled or
come from a foreign language.
Zotero is an
amazing resource for managing information needed for citations and
bibliographies.
Double-check your dissertation defense
time. The night before I checked again and my defense started at 1:00 pm, not 1:30 pm like I had thought.
