An advanced degree, it is called. Going beyond, almost all the way in academia. The Masters. When sportscaster on CBS Jim Nantz says those words, it sounds like paradise opened up. One of pro golf’s majors, played on the beautiful, full of spring bloom Augusta National Golf Club course in April.

The Masters degree is one I hold with deep humility. I was never very scholarly, never made Dean’s List, only the honor roll a couple of times. Maybe it was pressure or nerves or barely-tapped-into psychological stuff.

Associate’s degree? Not much to it. I commuted daily from home for twenty-one months. My Bachelor’s was earned through three years of night school.

Master of Divinity, says the title.

Perhaps an achievement more of survival than of brains.

Our Great Teacher showed (shows) us a more excellent way, which is to be a master of living. Jesus worked a carpenter trade, but when he fished for and then shaped men, He became the Master Builder. No room for personal goals or egos. No Pharisaical judgment or Essene isolation. Not the violent approach of the Zealots.

Yes, the Great Teacher. He who puts us in the classroom, the laboratory of life. We are in constant training mode, involving our physical, intelligent, and mental capacities. Lessons taught in confirmation class. The SAT. Myers-Briggs. Seminary approval panel. Spiritual Gifts questionaire. All of it put into practice in  the ongoing life experiment of trying, failing, then succeeding. All by God’s grace.

Whether it’s the SAT, seminary approval panel, or Myers-Briggs, or spiritual gifts questionaire. God will continue molding us, unconditionally loving us,and, when we one day die in faith, we will become Masters of Living.