Faith and Learning: It's in the process as much as it is the content

I have been reflecting since my last post on how I have tried to forge the connection I described between cognition and embodiment of faith and cognition and embodiment of the ideas, concepts, and facts we encounter in our learning experiences at  college; and I have added to that introspection what Barb mentioned in her most recent post, about framing work as a pathway towards a kind of existential fulfillment. Too often I (and maybe others) are guilty of seeing the current work/tasks/people with whom we must work as a means rather than as both a means and an end. Although the work that is done as a student is often times advertised as a stepping stone (and I believe much of it is), what we do in "the now" does define us--we don't become defined only after we have completed the preparatory work as a student awaiting the professional world or as an adult awaiting retirement. Thus, the process of connecting faith and cognition is, it seems to me, just as integral to having purpose in life as is the actual connections we make between the content of our work and the work we seek to do for God. 

Maybe this emphasis on process will help in making the toughest, or the most aggravating, work more doable. Even still, it remains a task to apply this thinking in the midst of a hectic day; but I suppose it is important to remind one's self that it is the struggles that define and shape us most!...