Being Human

Being human has its distinct advantages, does it not? Because we are called to have dominion over God’s creation, our human calling is different than the calling of the rest of creation. What is our human calling, and where does education fit into our human condition? Nicholas Wolterstorff, in an essay entitled, Why Doing Isn’t Everything, discusses what it is to be human. The following passage provides four insights from Wolterstorff on being human.

“To be human is to interpret not as an option but as a necessity. Reality is many different sorts, and if beliefs about the reality presented to us are to emerge, we must ourselves contribute to the interchange. Second, to be human is to imagine – to imagine how things may well be in the future in contrast to how they are in the present, and beyond that, to imagine how they could be even if they never will be that way. Third, to be human is to act and prize under the aspect of the good. “Lastly, what accompanies these foregoing capacities …is a capacity for delight and satisfaction that goes vastly beyond enjoyment of the sensory.”

Wolterstorff summarizes these views with this thoughtful summation: “to be human is to interpret the given, to imagine alternatives to the facts, to act and prize under the aspect of the good, and to find enjoyment in doing these.”

These four areas highlight our human condition. These four areas also crystallize the need for and importance of Christian education. Generally, education, teaches interpretation, fosters and directs imagination, produces and directs action, and finally instills into each student the essence of the good, the beautiful, and the joyful. A true Christian education can greatly assist in providing divine human direction – the original direction God created for His human creation.

Wolterstorff believes that “to be human is to be enculturated” and he also emphatically states that “one’s enculturation is always into some specific culture. No one is enculturated into human culture in general.” I believe that Wolterstorff is profound here. We have all been enculturated in ways that influence the way we see the entire world. When I was young, even though I was not a Christian, I still received an enculturation that had a heavy moralistic flavor to it. Unfortunately, I can not, in good conscious, acknowledge that this moral enculturation occurs in today’s society. The enculturation that our children will receive, if it is not Christian, will be one with little or no moralistic tone. It will be one that has heavy doses of self-centered and rebellious tones flavored with postmodern views of the world. Like it or not, this is the natural state of our hearts – without the Holy Spirit, and what we should expect.

As a Believer, I feel that part of my divine human calling is to provide an education that leads into the Christian culture. The Holy Spirit has intervened on behalf of those of us in Christ, and His intervention should impact our entire lives, especially since our human condition points to the fact that we will contribute to the interchange of the reality around us. Facing reality is always about questions: do we believe that enculturation takes place? And, if we do, what will be our response?

North Adams

I sometimes enjoy looking through old pictures and such to catch a sense of life as it used to be. It was during one of those quests that I happen upon the following picture of North Adams, Massachusetts.

This old picture captures the city's strategic position of beauty in the midst of surrounding mountains. The cliche is true; you don't realize what you have until you lose it. I lived in and around North Adams for 24 years and never fully realized or appreciated her beauty. Enjoy this old picture, and, if you get the chance, visit North Adams. Blessings!

Inservice Talk

I have posted my opening comments from this year's In-service below.

Psalm 86:11

“Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I fear your name.”

This is my fourth year at Westminster and this year I want to set a new tone; that is, not my tone but His. We all care deeply for this school, or we would not be here. I desperately want Psalm 86:11 for all of us this year, to walk in His truth and not mine, to have an undivided heart and not a divided one, and to fear His name and not each other, but in order for that to happen we have to identify that which holds us back and keeps us from moving ahead.

I wake up every morning fighting it; I get caught up in my day and forget that the way I look at life is through my addiction: myself. We are all addicted to ourselves in some way, shape or form. I expect you to be like me and you expect me to be like you – we are not alike because we were created by a Holy God to be different. If it were up to me, I would want us to unite in me, in what I know, in who I am… but as long as that is my tendency, unity in Christ will never occur. I need you, and you need me no matter how insane and insecure we are. We need each other. How can we hope to impact the culture around us if we continue to struggle with each other?

Today, as a school, it is time to move into a new light, and there is only one way to do that – unity in Christ. Most of you are saying, “I have heard this before, but how?’ I believe it begins first with a choice and an action. Today, we have a choice to make; are we going to sit, listen and agree, but then walk away unchanged and into the same routine as before or will we seek new ways and take that step of faith forward? Do you want to stay the same or are you like me – sick of the same struggles? We must choose to change and then act on that choice each day.

In my reading times and prayers, I keep running into this idea: more of Him? We must choose more of Him and act on that choice. But, that is such a general statement; of course we need more of Him, but how? I think it starts with a real question: Do I really believe that He is all that I need? Do you? Psalm 86:11 gives us a picture of more of Him: to learn His ways, to walk in His truth, to have an undivided heart rooted in Him and to fear His name. So, you’re sitting there saying, “Fine, how do we do this?” I think I finally know where we can begin.

First, we must be real with ourselves and with each other and that means asking real questions like: are we better this year than we were last year? Do I trust my fellow faculty and my administration? These are real questions we all wrestle with, and they have real answers, but our worldly tendency is to stop at the answers. Those that agree with us we welcome into our camp, those that don’t, well, they just don’t “get it.” Sound familiar? I say those things all the time. I believe as important as answers are (and they are important) He calls us beyond the question and beyond the answers. In order to go beyond the questions and answers, we must, first, depend on scripture as much as humanly possible. Real answers excite me, but I can not forget about the Biblical process because if I do, I will stop at the answer and stay there. The process is as important as the product, as it helps guide us forward past the answers. What does this process look like?

Real answers must first be obtained through His prescribed process; we must follow Matt 18:15 with each other! We can’t just talk about. We can’t just expect others to follow it. We must follow it. This is our first new action toward a new light because the old way is to agree and do nothing, but the new way is to agree, to act and to change. Second, real answers are great, but they will be detrimental to us if our only motivation for seeking them is to surround ourselves with those who have the same answers as ours, and, to be honest, that is the reason for most of our questions. Asking real questions with this as our only motivation will not bring unity of any kind to you, me or our school. Scripture demands something different from those who believe: we are to ask real question that lead to real answers, but we must not stop there. We must listen to those real answers… all of those real answers – those we agree with and those we do not. Why? Because the process is not finished; I believe we are to go beyond those answers because the answers, as real and as important as they are, are to lead us NOT into confirmation that we are right, but instead into true relationships with each other.

This summer I discovered this wonderful truth; it is not only about the answers (and I love answers), but it is also about the relationships with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ is not just found in His word, but He is also found in His Believers! What did Jesus say? “Where two or three gather in my name I am with them.” And this verse comes at the end of a passage dealing with the sinning Brother. It is a prescribed process of restoring the sinning Brother back into unity and fellowship with other Believers. I imagine the sinning brother had some answers that were not in agreement with the church, and those must be dealt with, but in the passage, the process does not stop with answers (as important as they are) but moves beyond answers and into the restoration of a relationship. We must strive each year, each month, each week and each day for this unity, and this kind of unity is not found in our answers but in Him.

As I conclude, let me ask a real question, and I want you think about it for a moment: are we moving in the right direction (give a moment to think)? Your minds are thinking of many different things regarding this one seemingly simple question (you may even think, how ambiguous a question). The question is purposefully ambiguous in order to bring home this point: right now, there are many different answers to this one question. Each one of us is called to provide a real honest answer to that real question, not to find those who agree with us, but to begin to build relationships with those who agree with us and those who do not. Seeking only those who agree with us is the old way and will lead no where. We must understand that our answer, regardless of what it is, is meant as an opportunity to enter into a true relationship with fellow Believers leading to a unity that is in Christ and not in our answers. We are not to define each other by our answers but by who we are in Christ. As we unite and build true relationships, we will discover that it will take all of us in Christ to discover His answers. And, then we can move forward as a body defined by Christ instead of one divided by its answers to questions. We will always have different answers to questions and we should, but those answers should never define us. Christ defines us!

So, what do we do now? Well, I don’t have an equation or formula, but I do have an idea for a beginning, and that beginning is peace. This summer our SS has been going through the Peacemaker series. One of the points hammered home to me is this: the Word states that we are to seek… peace with each other! Those who seek peace do so to discover more of Him and less of themselves… isn’t that what we want our school to be – more of Him and less of us. Isn’t that were true unity in Christ is – less of us and more of Him?

Consider Jesus as our example:

Luke 7:50 “Your faith has made you well, go in peace.”

Luke 8:45 “Your faith has made you well, go in peace.”

This idea of faith and peace… we, in faith, are to seek peace, and I believe we are to seek it with each other first!

Psalm 35:20 “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

Is this not our calling as Believers… this peace with each other, is it not a daily pursuit worth all of our efforts? Can we accomplish anything without it?

I’m no theologian, but in my prayers I believe that to begin, we must seek peace with each other first. Peace is only found in relationships built in Christ and never in our answers. So, I believe we have two major priorities this year: our first priority is to be peacemakers and not peace –fakers or peace-breakers. Which are you? I am a peace-breaker by nature because I want to be right, and I want to be in control. As long as it is about me, it will never be about Him. Peace must be my goal, and it must be your goal. Collectively, when we strive for peace we will get less of ourselves and more of Him, and that is what we desperately need. Our second priority is to be forthright with our… goals because they will require our united efforts this year and every year. Blessings!