I grew up with an inferiority complex in a family who (unknowingly) put a great deal of emphasis on getting a higher education and who are adept at seeing others in a certain light.
Out of love for their children, my parents moved in grooming their children to excel in schooling, preferably in private schools, with the hopes of obtaining a spot within an “Ivy League” University, after leaving High School; although any college education would be acceptable.
You see, I was born with severe dyslexia and was hyperactive, never allowing my mind to slow down enough to take an interest in the material on an academic level. And when I was able to take an interest, I struggled being a slow reader in absorbing the materials. Yet if I could listen and learn what was being explained to me, more times than not, I would excel on the course materials!
My family provided me with a “private tutor in phonetics” after my learning disability was discovered, in fourth grade, and later mainlined into the public school system and graduated from high school, even though most of my life I felt like I was treated as a mental defective, for how I was placed in school, the workforce, and even the military. To make life even tougher for me, I was forced to wear “nice clothes to school” (not blue jeans) which made me appear as a snob, coupled with my quiet composure – I was consistently misread by my peers, and even once chewed out by a teacher who grew up in New York City.
Mine was always an uphill battle socially, especially when being placed with the “sweat hogs”, as they were called in “Welcome Back Carter” – a TV show which aired in the 70s. But when I got home at night after attempting to dress down to fit in, I caught it in the other direction as looking sloppy and unkempt.
After high school, because of my low SAT score in math, I instead enlisted in the Coast Guard, then shipped out to Hawaii to perform Alaskan patrols in the Pacific and Bearing Straights. At that time, the ship was a rough place to live, drugs and fighting were common, and lucky me, one of my “cubical mates” I had confronted later turned out to have murdered a couple of people – I think, in a crime of passion! After the Coast Guard, I joined the Army Reserves in a Floating Craft Unit, and also became a marine machinery technician, (what I had always wanted in the Coast Guard) and am now, directly across from the U.S. Coast Guard Yard.
I had a buddy in the Army I worked with who was a genius, he could pass nearly every written course with near perfection! Do you know what happened to him? He was consistently accused of cheating. He had aced his engineering course exam, yet was required to go to the formal training to complete the course, and when he finished, and took the final exam again, he received a lower score by being taught, than he had achieved on his own, even without instruction!
Many people hated the guy, but it just made me wish that I could be more like that, saving me a lot of trouble with academics! He was also like me in that he had ADHD too, and he hated schooling, to some degree, as many courses just served to slow him down!
I have personally known a couple “poor people” like this. And one was a biochemist who later was awarded a placement as an officer, and who wanted to follow me as a part of my company, as we too had become good friends serving together after 9-11, but my heart attack in the Army put a stop to my future plans to serve with my friends.
Many businesses and even churches are set up in the same manner of requiring higher education. And it was made painfully obvious to me that if you can obtain the standards of (say) an Elder in the church, and even can surpass the standards – by being self-taught as in my case, by finding a mentor who is highly educated in the Bible who can tutor you in the knowledge which he had gained; (even as a Dean of a Bible College) yet, are rejected for upsetting the apple cart, by outshining the formally educated men, you will still never be accepted.
This has turned out to be a longer story than I expected, and please forgive me for saying that most churches solely subscribe to the world’s education system. They place their congregational members into a position of leadership within the church for their education. This disregard for others who may have qualified, yet who may not have had the same formal educational opportunity is a disgrace, and prideful to me, especially when claiming to follow the Bible, and more importantly, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
Few well-formally educated men, will ever see, or bother to take this kind of behavior into account, with the exceptions of the “Mavericks” I have known who have worked their way up from the bottom, and I am speaking precisely about brothers in the Lord, being placed in church leadership. This should be based on calling, ability, and maturity in the Lord, and nothing less!
Perhaps this is why Jesus, our Savior, was born poor and worked with his hands? He was not concerned with his status or position in the world – like a bunch of backstabbing politicians, bankers, or lawyers. Rather, he loved people, and gave up his very life for them!
Lightship Ministries 