Studying Through Hard Times

There is always a reason not to open a book. There is always an excuse to not pick up a pen and paper, or to open a blank page on our laptop. 

The weather is too nice. The weather is too bad. There is no time. The timing isn’t right. There is no inspiration. There is too much inspiration.

And, of course, some reasons are better than others. Dealing with death. Struggling with health. Financial crises. A season spent in the slough of despond or too long a stay in the doubting castle. A time of war. A time of uncertainty. A time of depression. 

Whether societal or individual, many worries of this world can curb our appetite and ability to seek greater learning through study. 

Life Reveals

Nevertheless, although some seasons of our lives are certainly spent in more favorable conditions, at the end of the day, nearly any period of our lives will offer up excuses for refraining from diving deeper into reflection, education, and study. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves (preferably before a hard season), how bad do we want it?

Do we really want to grow? Do we desire to learn? Do we hunger to share and strengthen others through our efforts? Or, is it possible, that we just like the idea of such things? Do we really want it or do we just want to think that we do? 

Life has a way of revealing how genuine our convictions truly are. And no seasons are more revealing than the difficult ones. 

Of course, there may be times when our responsibilities and duties require us to slow our pace. The father of five with a full time job ought to properly order his pursuit of knowledge. If it is set above or against time with his children, care for his marriage, or the duties of his profession, his knowledge is a rather worthless thing. He may obtain it, but it will only be empty noise in the end (I Corinthians 13: 1-3). 

However, even a slow paced pursuit can yield much fruit. With just a little steady watering, in a decade or two, a sapling may become a hearty tree. The key to anything in life is a steadfast commitment. A person’s will must be set towards learning, and their actions over the years will reveal the honesty of such a stated conviction. 

On Learning in Wartime

But what about the really hard times? Divorce. Unemployment. Cancer. Or, let’s say, during war? Doesn’t wartime at least reveal that some situations are just too dire to pursue knowledge beyond one’s own survival? 

C.S. Lewis knew about war. He fought in World War I and was wounded in combat by a blast that immediately killed his sergeant and good friend. About two decades later, his nation entered its second world war. In 1939, he preached a famous sermon called, “Learning in Wartime.” In it, he stated that: 

The war creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun.¹

With his usual mix of brilliance and clarity, Lewis highlights how war is the aggravation of the human condition, not some utterly unique precarious position. Without a doubt, it is a harder situation, but each person on this planet lives their entire lives on a razor’s edge. As Lewis continues:

We are always falling in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.²

This is the critical point that we all must grasp for everything in our lives. There is no perfect time. Some times may be better than others, but all have an edge of imperfection. It takes a settled determination to always pursue knowledge, virtue, and wisdom, whether in season or out of season.

Keller’s Example

When pastor Tim Keller was first battling cancer back in 2003, he was not able to preach for three months. Now, that sounds like a solid reason to just take a breather. Keller was a dedicated reader and leader already, hadn’t he earned an intellectual break? 

Of course he had, but he chose not to take it. Instead, he picked up the 750 page, The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright, and kept on learning as he fought and recovered. The fruit was immediate. Keller wrote: 

As I was reading it, I realized I was coming to greater certainty, and that when I closed the book, I said, at a time when it was very important to me to feel this way, I said, “He really really really did rise from the dead.” And I said, “Well, didn’t I believe that before?” Of course I believed it before—I defended it, and I think before I certainly would have died for that belief. But actually, there were still doubts in there, and the doubts were taken down 50 percent or something. I didn’t even know they were there. And it was a wonderful experience. It was both an intellectual and emotional experience: You’re facing death, you’re not sure you’re going to get over the cancer. And the rigorous intellectual process of going through all the alternative explanations for how the Christian Church started, except the resurrection—none of them are even tenable. It was quite an experience.³  

And, as this was Tim Keller, this knowledge was not just used for his benefit. At a time when it was desperately needed to combat the height of the New Atheist movement, it was used to further strengthen the arguments in Keller’s classic defense of the Christian faith, The Reason for God. 

The conditions were far from favorable. Nevertheless, Keller labored on. And, he did not labor in vain, but the harvest was indeed plentiful. 

Committing to Study 

What season are you in? How dusty has that Bible on the shelf been lately? What reasons are we giving for not seeking to grow? How many other things are we still able to give time to? Does the TV still glow? Are we scroll, scroll, scrolling our life away as time marches on? 

We need to be gracious with ourselves. None of this is meant for condemnation, but only exhortation. We need grace and patience, but we also need to be realistic. We only get so much time, and, we all know, it moves fast. 

So, do we want it or not? Are we content to let artificial intelligence do all the heavy lifting? Or, would we rather break an intellectual sweat ourselves? As with most things, once we make even a little effort, we find that the first step was ten times harder than the next thousand. 

So, let’s ask one more time, do we want it or not? If we really do, then don’t let anything stop you. Do what you can. Do a little at a time. Turn off the distractions. Set aside the time. Don’t expect significant results in the short term. But, labor on, and one day, don’t be surprised to see a healthy crop surrounding you. 

 Notes 

1. C.S. Lewis, “Learning in Wartime,” in The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 49 
2. Ibid. 60
3. Anthony Sacramone, “An Interview with Timothy Keller,” First Things,
   February 25, 2008, https://firstthings.com/an-interview-with-timothy-keller/ 

Further Reading

• Don’t Let ‘If Only’ Prevent ‘What Could Be’
• How to (Never) Get What You Want
• Intellectual Study By Faith

Photo by Navy Medicine on Unsplash