The Atheist's Nativity

What does the love of Christ really look like? What does it do to real people when it is truly expressed? Would it, could it, possibly cause an atheist to provide a star for the very nativity scene he nearly sued to have taken down?

Ridiculous, I know.

SDG

Teddy

Today, pastor shared the parable of Teddy. As far as I can tell, it is just that, a parable on the power a teacher can have, but it is a good one. Rather than cut and paste it here, I’ve linked to it above and will just comment on the lessons.

The basic story is that a bright elementary student lost his mother to illness around 2^nd grade and entered a downward spiral in school and personality. His 5^th grade teacher eventually learned the back story, stopped dreading his presence in class, began to work with him and turned things around, such that he went on to become a doctor, and had her stand in for his mom at his wedding.

In my own teaching, I’ve had a tendency to follow the conventional wisdom that in general, the A students will succeed no matter what you do, the average students will be average and the weak students will do poorly. Good teaching may shift where those boundaries are, but radical transformation is rare.

I still think that is largely true. But the conviction I received today was that because transformation does occur, then I should seek it out and nurture it, rather than let it happen on its own. I commit to having my TA’s point out the weak and struggling students to me, so that I can intervene and see if this one is a transformation needing a boost.

That is the call of a true teacher—to provide a solid educational environment for the majority to get what they want out of the lessons, then to actively seek out those needing and wanting to be lifted out of their situation.

Jesus died for all, and asks all who will to come, yet stories abound of Him reaching out special to those wanting but unable to find Him. Can we do any less in our teaching?

SDG

Steve and Gordon: Two Models of Innovation and Influence

Yesterday, I wrote about how serving the Lord can lead to transformation, innovation and leadership. Today I came across two examples of innovation and transformation with very different impacts:  Steve Jobs and Gordon Ramsey.

The web is filled with the news and commentary about Steve Jobs’ passing. It was a little shocking to me to hear how soon after stepping down it happened. Pretty much everyone is singing his praises about how he transformed the world electronically. It’s a no-brainer that he influenced the world in a major way. There are several points to note about that impact.

Universalism?

Yesterday, I suggested that God gives some information to some folks and not the complete story, then gives other, but equally incomplete information to others, with the idea that we pool our knowledge to find more complete understanding and thus bring glory to God. It is an understandable step, then, from that to ‘all roads to God are one,’ so that the exclusivity of the Gospel is weakened.

I do not take that step.

Rather, I see the revelation of God (the Scriptures) to the people of Israel as the linchpin or key to the general revelations that the rest of the world’s cultures have been given. Without something to use as an anchor or framework to hold human knowledge and understanding together, we face the certainty of getting things put together incorrectly, and increasing conflict when the pieces don’t fit together.

I do not believe it is an accident that God placed Israel in the Middle East, near the cradle of civilization, at the crossroads of three continents, so that every culture, whether through trade or war, had to go through that area to reach elsewhere. Israel is at the heart of information exchange for the vast majority of human history, leaving the opportunity for the Jews to witness to the special revelation of God, and in turn apply it to the wisdom and understanding of the nations, and re-disseminate it back to them.

Did they take advantage of the opportunity? Not so well, but not so incompletely either, as their influence has been so much larger than one postage stamp sized country has ever had a right to.

Not only are they placed strategically, but God chose that place for His incarnation, and at a time when the dominance of the Romans lead to an overall peace like the world had never seen, the Pax Romana, with good roads to facilitate a quick spread of the message. There was relative peace, which left people with the luxury of time to consider higher things than mere survival, and the freedom to travel relatively unobstructedly throughout the known world to share it.

Finally, God in the Scriptures repeatedly declares His intent to redeem nations, tribes and tongues; in short, cultures, wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Perhaps, then, we as Christians need to do more listening to others, and filter what we hear through the Scriptures and the indwelt Spirit. Perhaps God is less concerned with conversion and more with redemption. Perhaps if we trusted God’s leading more, and feared going astray less, the power of the Gospel would be more evident, and we would see what real transformation looks like.

Perhaps.

SDG