Intelligence and Religion

I posted this about a couple weeks ago but didn’t put it on my main blog. So now I am:

While in church I came across a scripture that spoke to me. I’m not a real religious person, I’m more on the spiritual side. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to go to church every Sunday when I know that I’m living the right way. Anyway, the passage came from Romans Chapter 12.

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Sometimes I really wish I were average. I’m younger than all my friends, professors point me out, and no matter how hard I try to “blend in” it just doesn’t happen. I could sacrifice my grades and appear to be average, but in my grades lies my future. So when the class average is a 50 on a Calculus II test and I score a 99 and I am the youngest freshman in the entire school AND I’m in Calculus II , a junior class, It’s impossible to blend in.

It’s hard being smart. And when I say smart that is probably an understatement for myself. I am a genius. I know it. I could have been done with college long ago, but I’m glad I’m with people closer to my age. It’s tough now and I couldn’t possibly imagine if I had finished college at age 10. I don’t understand how parents can allow their child to finish school at such a young age. Kids like that end up shunned from society…friendless. Maybe I’m being stereotypical, but that’s what I’ve seen.

I really really don’t want to appear conceited about my intelligence. I feel my smarts were just a matter of luck. Some people are born to be great basketball players, to be virtuoso musicians, I was born smart. There is no reason for me to hold my head up high and look down on people when I could just as easily been born below average. I have never thought highly of myself for this very reason… But why must others think so highly of me?