TEACHER SATISFACTION

As a former high school teacher and a present ESL teacher, I was reflecting on what makes teaching such a rewarding experience. Here's what I have come up with so far:

Levels of Teacher Satisfaction

• Attention Captured - This is the first step. If the student is distracted or resistant, the entire enterprise of education is sidelined. As a teacher, it feels great to see a student's eyes focused on the subject at hand.

• Misconceptions Cleared - Finding misunderstandings and clearing them away can be an incredibly satisfying feeling for a teacher. But it's important to remember that old ideas do not die easily. 

• Lightbulb Moment - Teachers live for the moment that the light comes on and the student sees something clearly for the first time. This is an important milestone because ground has been gained which can never be lost again.

• Internal Motivation to Learn Beyond Class - How incredibly satisfying it is for a teacher to hear the student has taken up study of the subject outside of the classroom. And inward curiosity is now driving the student forward.

• Able to Teach Others - When a student returns a decade later to tell the teacher, "You inspired me to become a teacher myself", it is enough to carry that teacher through even the toughest school year.

• Life Dedicated to the Subject - Just as good or better than inspiring future teachers is the experience of seeing a student fall so in love with the subject that it ends up consuming his or her lifetime. This is the ultimate.

What all these have in common is the teacher's love for the subject and great desire to see others know, understand, and love the subject as well.

I think the local pastor should be striving to reach each of these levels of satisfaction with the congregation seated before the pulpit. 

GOOD NEWS: WE ARE NOT REPAID

As I suspected, when I googled "The Shack" and "heresy", I found the sharpest criticism of the movie reserved for its rejection of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. 

PSA is the gospel as far as most believers are concerned.

So many are convinced that God simply cannot forgive sins without inflicting punishment on someone. They make a case for Jesus taking our punishment at the hand of the Father while on the cross, but they never consider this simple truth: sin which is punished has not been, by definition, forgiven. 

Any particular wrongdoing is either punished or forgiven. 

It's one or the other. 

The atonement sacrifices of the Old Testament involved the death of a lamb, yes, but the focus was on the blood of that lamb, not its death. And it was slaughtered as humanely as possible. Pain was minimized. 

The blood of that innocent lamb was used to cleanse the temple from sin (temporarily). 

Sin was washed away. Not punished. 

How is it that God was able to forgive in Old Testament times and then can't in the New Testament?

Take a moment to meditate on the beauty of Psalm 103:

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

9 He will not always accuse us,

nor harbor His anger forever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins

or repaid us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

14 For He knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are dust.

REACTION TO THE SHACK

I watched The Shack on Netflix tonight, based on the recommendation of a young friend. It was not what I was expecting.

When the movie came out in 2017, I only recall hearing largely negative reviews from various Christians critical of its theology.

The word "heresy" was thrown at the movie from every direction. 

I never saw it. I never even investigated the story line or the theological positions of the movie's producers.

This was before I understood that cries of "heresy!" in theological circles are the equivalent of "racism!" in politics. 

In other words, sometimes based in reality but most often imagined or exaggerated. 

So when I sat down to watch it today, I braced myself to be "shocked!!" and "offended!!" on God's behalf.

I was neither.

It did make me cry, though. 

If you're not familiar with The Shack, the basic storyline involves a grieving father who finds healing over a weekend spent with God in a cabin in the woods. I thought the storyline was engaging, the acting was good, and the movie was relatively uncheesy (for a "religious" movie). 

I look forward to reading up on the criticisms of the movie - to find out if I missed some horrifying theological misstep or if I'm just heretically inclined myself! ;-)  

I look forward to sharing The Shack with Melissa and my kids and seeing what they think. 

BIBLICAL ADMONISHMENT

Colossians 1:28 - Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 

This word translated as "warning" or "admonishing" in most English versions is νουθετέω (noutheteō) in the Greek.   

According to Dr. David Pao, a professor of New Testament, this word "may imply that an error needs to be corrected" (p.132 in his commentary on Colossians).

N.T. Wright confirms: noutheteo, "though sometimes understood as meaning simply 'putting into the mind', most likely includes the idea of the setting of someone's mind into proper order, with the implication that it has been in some way out of joint." 

He continues: "Positive teaching may not be enough: there is no telling what muddles Christian minds will get into from time to time, and part of the task of one who proclaims Christ is to straighten out confusions, to search for and tie together correctly the loose ends of half-grasped ideas, so that the positive teaching may not be instantly distorted upon reception, but may be properly understood, appreciated and lived out" (p.97-98 in his commentary on Colossians).

This is one of the most basic principles of effective teaching: first, find out what your students know that isn't so. Misunderstandings must be brought to light and named. 

If your goal is maturity in Christ, you cannot skip this step! 

ALI SPOKE TRUTH

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." ― Muhammad Ali

I would venture to say the same thing is true of a person who views faith the same at 50. 

I have no doubt many believers would disagree. I think most implicitly take utter consistency over the long haul as the height of holiness and piety.

I suppose it could be - assuming you lucked out and grew up in the perfect church with the perfect doctrine and pitch-perfect balance in all things. And not a single false view of God or Scripture ever took root in your imagination.

But if that wasn't your experience, then holding to the same faith at 50 as you did at 20 isn't admirable. 

It means you've stagnated. A long time ago.

 

MOUNTAINS OF IGNORANCE

Have you heard the one about the scientist climbing the mountain?

The image comes from Robert Jastrow - astronomer and planetary physicist - who was on the founding team at NASA.

Over the course of his career in science, he also established the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, pioneered the use of satellite technology, and had a hand in planning the Voyager & Galileo space probes.

When he died in 2008, the New York Times hailed him as the man “Who Made Space Understandable” for others.

In a world where many people imagine science and faith to be pitted against each other, Robert Jastrow never saw a conflict between his personal faith and his scientific pursuits.

In fact, he saw a profoundly different relationship between the two: one where science ultimately CATCHES UP to theology.

Here’s how Jastrow envisions the scientist climbing the “mountains of ignorance”:

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”  

Be encouraged!

FOOLING OURSELVES

“It takes inordinate courage to introspect, to confront oneself, to accept one’s limitations—scientists are seeing more and more evidence that we are specifically designed by mother nature to fool ourselves.”  -Nassim Taleb

What some blame on mother nature or evolution, seems reasonably explained as the result of fallen human nature as well. 

Nearly indetectable from the inside, the human ability to fool oneself is nearly unlimited in its scope. 

This makes for another prime argument in favor of cultivating a true humility in the face of holy Scripture. A "beginner's mindset" that has no problem with admitting, "I may well be wrong."

I suppose one of the reasons Calvinism fascinates me is that its adherents firmly hold the belief that the unregenerate are incapable of understanding any spiritual truth from Scripture but they - the elect - see all with perfect clarity. 

They regularly give the impression of believing themselves to be inerrant in their interpretation of God's word.

And, like the Pharisees before them, they perpetually miss the big picture and inadvertently paint God as a complete monster.

It is a profound tragicomedy.