I haven’t been to heaven and I guess you haven’t either. Our knowledge about God comes from the scripture and sometimes personal revelation/encounter.
I believe He is omnipotent, omnipresent etc. But for the past two to three weeks, I have been wrestling with the above named topic. It flashed into my mind once and would never let go. I have decided to get rid of it; throw it out for all to read as well. There is a message in it for you if you are a teacher at heart.
As a teacher dealing with students on day to day basis, I have realized that reflecting over our action or other’s is a tool we must keep handy. I want to share this reflection of mine with you. Be kind to express your views after surfing through.
God has been learning on the job. For centuries, millennia, He learnt from His interaction with mankind. And where God threads with caution, I dare not zip around it like car driver on steroid.
GOD'S LEARNING FIELD
Between the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament is about thousands years (don’t know many exactly).
Between the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament is about thousands years (don’t know many exactly).
Those years featured God establishing covenants upon covenants with His people. It saw Him sending prophets to reestablish affirm old covenants or setup new ones. Yet He had a nation so truculent that at the slightest opportunity turned the terms of the covenant on its head.
Through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Jeremiah and many more He established these covenants with His people.
He promised them heaven and earth, parted the sea for them, made manna fall like rain in the desert, squeezed water out of a rock, brought down nations before them. And what was His reward?
They (the Israelites) sold Him out at the slightest opportunity, going after manmade images and the likes. They even offered their children to those gods too. Killed, tortured, maimed prophets He sent to call them back to order even His son met the death reserved for criminals of the highest order.
He sent them into exile, brought them back. He punished them with famine, diseases etc but the repetition was unfortunately an endless cycle.
LEARN FROM GOD
But God didn’t give up. God upped His game and not the Jews. Like the master tactician/coach, He shifted from plan B to C, D down to Z and at the end, conquered the whole world in less than two thousand years.
But God didn’t give up. God upped His game and not the Jews. Like the master tactician/coach, He shifted from plan B to C, D down to Z and at the end, conquered the whole world in less than two thousand years.
The icing on the cake was that He is no longer leading the battle line from the vanguard. We, you and I are doing it with His blessings.
But don't forget, God upped His game and not the Jews.
The key to His incredible success was taking flesh, the incarnation. All other covenants never had this feature. And it was when He ate with us, wept, got angry, slept, knew disappointment and success that the seed of world domination.
Instead of appearing in a pillar of smoke, with a thundering voice, opening up the ground to swallow defaulters, sending poisonous snakes amongst their rank to punish them, making them walk forty more years in exchange for forty days, sending them into exile etc He chose to live with you and I.
This is what teaching should look like.
My students will never change their game tomorrow. They don't even know what wave length they are playing on. And if I give in, they lose. If I go hard on them, I may lose some if not all.
My only option is to play God. I have to come down to their level, observe their learning processes, weaknesses and do the changing from inside out; from their point of view.
I will teach, learn and study with them. I must get into their brains, behind their eye sockets and view my learning process from their perspective, how they assimilate and interpret my learning contents. This is no easy fit but it is doable.
Jesus did it. If he hadn't lived among us, I wonder how long Christianity would have fared. I think that what fired a bunch of semi-literate/illiterate Jewish men to change the course of history was their experience with Jesus (the Word made flesh).
CONCLUSION
Permit me to wrap up with this quote, "I've learnt it is more effective to adapt and to meet my students where they are rather than forcing them to change, to adapt and to meet me where I'm."
Permit me to wrap up with this quote, "I've learnt it is more effective to adapt and to meet my students where they are rather than forcing them to change, to adapt and to meet me where I'm."
This was God’s trump card.
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