Yeah, that was me on Friday for the high school students. So yea, I teach ninth grade World Geography and US History to some high school kids along with doing administrative stuff for the older grades. The Bible teacher for the fourteen 10-12 graders was actually gone with his family in South Africa because his daughter was very sick. Thankfully she's recovered and they're back in Malawi. Well, in his absence, Lorilee MacLean who takes care of the high school kids and myself filled in for Bible class. The class is focused on the Christian worldview. Lorilee took a day to talk about finding and following God's will. It was really good. I was taking the Friday class and we were taking a look at dualism; our world's tendency towards splitting our coprorate and individual lives into different compartments that are either secular(God's not concerned about this) or sacred(falling within God's dominion). I grew up with this idea, that God wasn't all that concerned about my behavior on the soccer field, or the material that I studied in school. My personal beliefs didn't belong in certain public categories. I knew that God wanted me to be a good person and treat people with love, but I didn't catch that God wanted absolute Lordship of every part of my life. So we read some commentary from a guy named Ken Boa on the problem of dualism and the Biblical philosophy of integrating God's Truth into every part. We split into groups, each one given a couple areas of focus. We had areas like school, entertainment, family, friends, how we dress, etc. The hope was to get into what, why, how of all these areas, discussing how we would DO these areas of our lives if Christ were standing right next to us. The kids did a good job, and I did some prodding, to help them towards questioning what they're doing now, and what God would like them to do. We had an extra long Bible class, an extra hour, but I hope that it was worth it. It's one of the mysteries of teaching, especially in a Christian school. You sometimes can't detect a change that can only happen in the heart and soul of your students. There may not be a measurable or detectable change in the heart of a child who has given more of themselves to Christ. But that's where we trust and hope and believe that God grows the smallest seeds sown. That's what I'm hoping for in all of our students; that they love God with all their hearts, all their mind, with all their soul, and all of their strength.
