Once there was a young man who decided that he understood what he had been taught, and not only this, he decided that he understood it far better than his teachers did.
His teachers were of course very concerned about him. This is something that all young students go through, but sometimes a student is afflicted in such a way as to make everyone wonder if he will ever grow out of it, and that was the case with this young man.
He was taught that the gospel set us free from our sins so that we might serve one another in love, and that this was the meaning of true Christian liberty. But he understood the deeper things and concluded that Christian liberty was worthless unless it allowed him to smoke cigarettes.
He was taught that Christian disciples rejoiced in that which was pure, and true, and lovely. He decided that this meant he must become conversant as a deep critic of the grimier films. “Do aesthetics not matter?” He wondered aloud. And so in the name of all that is lovely he embraced the unlovely.
He was taught that the world is a fascinating place, full of fascinating people. He was shown that an interested person can gather a wealth of stories through a genuine love of others. But reasoning to himself, he thought that he was surely more fascinating than anyone else that he knew, and so he set up a blog to display the reasons for thinking this to an admiring world.
I am afraid that many young men in this condition do come to a bad end. And though it might be satisfying to hear that this young man was somehow turned into a toad, that is not what happened to him. As he grew older and finally matured, he finally learned the heart of true humility about five years late and eventually entered the ministry. All his peers who had learned their lessons back when they were supposed to learn them were quite put out about it.