Cultivating My Own Mind

In An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?, Immanuel Kant aimed to define enlightenment as “man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity” (1). He believes that the masses of people live in a world that lacks understanding and the only thing that holds us back from enlightenment is our lack of courage to use our own intellect, reason, and wisdom individually. Fundamentally, Kant believes that humans live in fear of thinking for themselves. This belief spoke to me, and I think it applies to my own walk with Christianity.

I did not grow up in a Christian household; I went to church on the appropriate holidays and was raised to live the lifestyle of Christians, but I was never truly taught about how a relationship with Christ was the crux to salvation. I read the Bible, and tried my best to live by the commandments and have a moral standard. Yet, as Kant would say, I was leading a life of immaturity. I was mindless and lazy; I knew the rules of Christianity and followed them monotonously. I never took the time to question why God has instilled His laws or why God would want us to live such structured lives. I simply took His word as law and followed it.

I was “incapable of using [my] own understanding” (1). I was content living in this bleak life where I was spoon-fed my beliefs, rather than being bold and wise enough to question and “cultivate [my] own mind” (1). No one ever pushed me to escape from the bounds of immaturity and have the courage to use my own understanding. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school, that I escaped from the cowardice and was literally forced to question my own beliefs. For years I had been involved in Young Life, a national Christian organization through high schools. Last summer, I went to a weeklong camp called Windy Gap and for the first time in my life, I was asked why I was a Christian and how my relationship with Jesus made me a better person. I tried using the shallow knowledge I had to answer these life questions, but I had no personal understanding and as Kant would say, was struggling to “free [myself] from immaturity” (1). Throughout the week at camp, I thought through every belief any Christian holds, and reformed all my beliefs for myself. Yes, I was timid and scared, but “learning to walk” (1) for myself made me a truly enlightened Christian.

I lived in the dark and bleak world Kant believed the masses of the unenlightened reside in. I was so uncomfortable with my own thinking and through cultivating my own mind, I am more closer to God than ever before.