A Student's Plight

I am in the midst of that infamous time of the semester: paper time. Usually, I will have about two large papers to write each semester. This semester is a little different because I am writing my master's thesis paper, the largest paper I have ever worked on. The goal is to produce a resource for the church in the area of Biblical Counseling concerning a subject perhaps neglected.

Although the goal is worth pursuing, the temptations of paper writing are still present: "just get it done so you can go have fun," "put it off, you'll have more later," and "quantity of pages is more important than quality." But I have chosen to approach this paper by another principle:

Where there is much labor, there is much gain.

Ignatius' Epistle to Polycarp 1.2

I know firsthand that writing a paper forces me to synthesize what I read and is a very instructive experience. But it's hard. It takes work. And for that reason, I often fail to produce good papers (at least in my oppinion). Yet it seems that most valuable things require much work to obtain. This is easily seen in learning a musical instrument or achieving ability in sports. No one appreciates the sound of a violinist who practices occassionally; it is the violinist who through years of disciplined practice produces sweet sounds that we appreciate.

This leaves little room for dabbling. It requires devotion. I use to have a desire to write a lot of books, commentaries on the Scripture and such. As I have become a more experienced reader, this desire has changed. Many books reveal little depth of insight, little thought in their production. I think rather than writing a lot of books that I would like to produce one great work which can be called the definitive or classic work. I'm not as much interested in having the reputation as a writer but of one who worked hard to produce something of value.