Education Blog

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Somewhere Else

“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.” – Philemon 7

Paul writes this verse from a jail cell. He doesn’t want to be there, but God has given him joy and encouragement through Philemon’s love, not in some future circumstance, but here and now. Not “Your love will give me” but “Your love has given me.”

So many of my daily frustrations are the product of my desire to be anywhere but where I am, even when my intention is spiritual. I want to engage in discipleship, but not in my own house. Give me strangers rather than my own wife or daughter! Or I want to read the one book on theology I don’t have at hand because that’s the one that’s going to have the answer that’s been plaguing me. Or I want to celebrate Christian community, except when I’m actually in the dull part of a sermon on Sunday.

I listened to this podcast with Seth Godin today, and the bulk of Godin’s conversation with Brian Koppelman is concerned with how to process negative feedback. Godin suggests saying to the nay-sayer, “That is fascinating. Thank you.” in order to diffuse the anger that negative feedback might engender. The grounding for this truth, that this moment really is fascinating and an occasion for gratitude, is rooted in the fact that God made it possible and that every good and perfect gift comes from him.

I want my students to feel joy and encouragement in my class, even though I know that the classroom is ground zero for the “somewhere else” feeling that education can provoke. If they can’t be present—mentally and emotionally, not just physically—in class, they will most likely have difficulty being where they are doing work outside the class as well. I pray that God gives me the love for my students I’ll need to transform that space into one of practice and learning and discipleship, not simply a purgatory where students bide time until they actually learn.

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“But Patience / to prevent that murmur…”

Proverbs 16:32…“Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.”

 “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
   I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
   Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
   Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
   And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
   They also serve who only stand and wait.”
                                                    John Milton, Sonnet 19

 

I hate when it’s quiet. In college and in my early days of graduate school I would fall asleep with the TV on a sleep timer. During the day, I would keep the quiet at bay with a variety of audiobooks, podcasts, music, and noise machines—anything to keep the static of the inside of my ahead from getting too loud, you know, the cliched deafening effect of silence.

My proclivity for noise is a product of my desire for effectiveness run amok. Or maybe that’s the lie I tell myself to excuse the really difficult truth at the heart of my unrest: my unwillingness to rest in God. Continue reading ““But Patience / to prevent that murmur…””

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Wisdom > Gold

“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!” – Proverbs 16:16

I am impatient and want return on my investment right away. This proverb speaks to my desire for tangible benefits that will pass away instead of the intangible ones that reflect eternal value. The kicker, of course, is that it’s significantly easier to get and keep silver and gold if you have wisdom and insight, and if you have gold but no wisdom, you probably won’t have the gold that long. Continue reading “Wisdom > Gold”

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Thankful In Little

Luke 19:26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’”

Yesterday, I received two emails that should have made me elated. They did make me happy, but I don’t think I held onto that happiness for very long.

First, a student I taught in the spring got a writing gig with his current employer. He was pumped about the opportunity, and since we had spent so much time working on his writing for the freshman writing course he was part of, he wanted to let me know the good news.

Second, my uncle—my dad’s oldest brother—responded to an email I sent him early in the week. We last saw each other about this time a year ago, and he commented on how much that particular vacation—where he had, among other things, gotten to see my dad, Elisha, and me—had meant to him.

These are phenomenal blessings: written records of gratitude and appreciation that show God working in the lives of the people I have been in prayer for.

And yet. And yet. Continue reading “Thankful In Little”

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Discipleship and Potty Training

Luke 19:10…“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Christ’s words mean that he came to save everyone, since there is no one who is not in need of being found by him. Whether or not the lost acknowledge it—whether or not they even know they’re lost—Christ seeks them with the purpose to rescue them.

This morning, my wife and I started a three-day intensive potty-training session with my daughter. It went as well as it could go with only one major accident.

It’s an allegory for a certain of experience I have had as a teacher, namely this sequence:

  1. I’m not sure I am teaching my student anything new.
  2. Even if I was, I’m not sure my student could articulate what that something new was.
  3. The training has a pretty clear goal for the student, though. She either goes to the potty or doesn’t.
  4. Ultimately the exact reasons for getting the student to that goal are not as important as the student accomplishing the training’s goal.
  5. In this way, this training is an example of grace for both the student and teacher.

Before today, Catherine had never gone a day of her life without wearing a diaper. Whether she was ready or not, she had never done what a growing child should do: leave the diaper behind and begin to use the potty for herself. Whether she could have articulated that to herself or not, it was true. She was, in a way, lost.

I’ve been going back and forth over the past few months about my goals regarding discipling students, especially as it concerns leading others to Christ. I have decided to focus my prayer and goals on sharing the gospel more than the end result because ultimately am not responsible for someone else’s spiritual status; the holy spirit is. If I start holding myself accountable for someone else’s acceptance or refusal of the gospel, a number of bad things are bound to happen.

But just as my wife and I were the ones who led Catherine through the process of discovering a new way of using her body today—at least partially through personal example—I can be the one who can declare our need for Christ and the way that Christ sought and saved me. Whether or not what I said is responsible for the person’s conversion shouldn’t matter as much as the fact that someone new has been added to God’s kingdom.

God, give me the grace to live out your truth: that you sent your Son to seek and save us.

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Hurry Up and Fail

In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis suggests that one way for people to see how much they need Christ is to seriously attempt to rely on themselves. This is because

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

Only when we confront our own inability to be good will we truly rely on Christ. This is where real faith begins.

There’s an analogous principle in academic work, especially in the process of writing something as large and unwieldy as a research paper. I like to tell my students, “Hurry up and fail.” What I mean is that they often won’t know what kind of work they really need to do on a project until they attempt it, no matter how messy it is. The problem is not the rough draft: the attempt to be good. The problem is waiting until the last possible minute to hand in a rough draft: the attempt to be good never led to a new sense of reliance.

Lewis lets us know that the serious attempt to be good on our own can lead to a significant spiritual insight: not that we are lost forever but that we can never be found until we have faith in God.

The point of emphasizing failure to students is this: we ALL need to revise. Go ahead and start writing now so you can ask for help in improving it. Do it sooner rather than later.