” I have to suspect that the kid didn’t have a lot of faith”
He was a really nice kid, so long as you stayed off the topic of religion. He was however, not the brightest bulb on the porch and would have been much better off in a trade, as he was obviously willing to work hard, judging by his musculature. One day, as I walked past his desk I asked, “Why the long face?”
With a thousand yard stare he said, as if to the wall behind me, “Did you know gasoline floats?” He was on the verge of tears. I skidded to a stop.
“What happened?”
He was staying at a room in an expensive house with a pool. They’d lit a grill with charcoal, but the fire wasn’t going. So he poured gasoline on it. The flame traveled up to the can, which ignited. He threw it into the pool. The plastic liner was destroyed. He said, “Do you know what those cost?”
“Three thousand dollars?”
“Three thousand, three hundred.”
So, not the brightest bulb. But I’d have been happy to hire him as a plumber or electrician once he’d had the training. Instead he had an AA which gave him zero job prospects beyond working in a gym.
College is over sold. His life was negatively impacted in numerous ways and he’d wasted a lot of time and money.
Faith isn’t like muscle. It isn’t weak or strong. It’s the character of the faithful that gives faith its form and structure. About half of today’s youth have little character as our participation trophy world doesn’t develop character. I really felt sorry for the young man. Following the popular path to college, simply because it was popular, had led him a long way away from any good path for him.
Now that’s an excellent point. Academia is NOT for everybody. Not good for everyone either
LOL ... a real genius. Certainly qualified to make up his own mind on the central topics of life ... “Who am I? Who is God? Where am I going, and why? Good teacher, what must I do to be saved?” ... not!
But we are told that it is the lukewarm people who will be spat out. Not the hot or the cold people.