During lunch there’s a group of several girls who usually stay in my room and eat their food. Partially because we work on aspects of the game, and we talk about things pertaining to the class and how it’s going. And sometimes we get into interesting talks. Yesterday we ended up speaking about politics in religion. I think it started when they were speaking about how men had made themselves superior to women, and I told them the story of creation according to the Hebrew Bible, complete with a mini-lesson about the ezer and what Hassah means and how the roles were reversed. And somehow, the discussion ended up at the questions about 2 things: First, how do you know all this stuff? And second, how come you still believe in God if it seems like you’re constantly discovering the Bible’s not accurate? Here’s kind of what I said. I wish I had been clearer. I told them, first, that I grew up believing because it’s what my parents taught me. But eventually I had to figure out what I believed and why, all for myself. After I did that, I kept learning. Today, I’m digging into our Biblical roots so that I have a broader and deeper understanding of who God is and what I believe. As for the second thing…. Well, just because I find that the way I was taught is incorrect doesn’t mean that the Bible is incorrect. The translation we have is not perfect because it was politically influenced, and there are lots of words that we just don’t always know how to translate from Hebrew because Hebrew’s such a rich language with so many descriptive words. But even though I may find inconsistency in translation, underneath the foundational principle on which I rest my faith remains the same: God loves me and Jesus died to remove the guilt of my sin so that relationship could be restored between us. (That’s the part I wish I had been clearer on. Because of the whole “don’t push religion on our kids thing” I didn’t get that far into it. I just said that nothing I had discovered in my learning disproved or discounted the basics of what I believe.) Finding out the truth has made my belief in and understanding of God much deeper and richer. Realizing that the version of the Bible I read is not particularly accurate is frustrating, but not also not completely surprising. I would love to learn Hebrew and Greek so I could read our Bible in it’s original form (I’d like to read the Gospels in their original Hebrew form, but the copy we have of that is pretty rare). So, one day when things seems to be a little less chaotic, I want to study those languages. I want to know more. And I want to be more bold and more direct the next time my students ask me questions. I pray they keep asking.
1 Corinthians 10:31 Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God. I’m starting a new semester today at my job. And because we’re on block scheduling, one of my classes will be completely new and the other two will be a little mixed up with new students. It’s always a little nerve-wracking walking in on that first day of class to discover what those students will be like. Last semester my kids were, for the most part, great. I had a good time teaching them. I’m hoping and praying the same for this semester. Sometimes it’s really hard to remember to do things that glorify God when I get frustrated with my students. There are a lot of times when I don’t show God’s love very well. And especially with my students, many of whom come from families where they don’t see their parents much or don’t have a parent to live with, I may be the only person who cares about them during the day. That’s sad and scary, especially when I get irritated and am short with them. So, as I start this new day with new students (mostly), I’m praying that God would give me a supernatural love for my students, exceptional patience, and joy in the students that I have this semester. I’m also praying that I would truly be “Jesus with skin on” for my students and show them the love that Jesus showed me. … And if you’re a praying person, would you mind praying that, too?