The New and the Old

“…there is no new thing under the sun.” -Ecc. 1:9

One of the advantages of being old is that I can remember when new ideas were once old ideas, long since discarded. When I first graduated from Wheaton College in 1966, we learned under the traditional semester system where school started after Labor Day, semester exams were held in early January, and school let out in early June. That’s the way it was back then except we were hearing about a new model of doing school called the quarter system. It was taking root in some state schools and seemed cutting edge and revolutionary. By the time I went back for graduate school two years later, the quarter system was standard in most colleges and universities. The school year was divided into three equal quarters with a fourth quarter available in the summer. Most students liked the quarter system because of shorter class lengths and because they fit neatly between vacation times. No taking home papers and guilt over the Christmas break.

Fast forward some twenty years later, and I was in the middle of another graduate program at UT, on the quarter system. But lo and behold, all of a sudden a new wave of innovation was sweeping the nation’s universities. It was called the semester system. By the time I graduated, I had a bevy of both quarter and semester credits with higher math called in to calculate their equivalency. We all were assured, however, that the semester system was a much better educational experience with some folks actually trying to pass it off as “new.”

In my old age, I confess to be a bit numb to whatever is being bandied about as being “new” in the field of “education.” I have seen any number of fads come and go; from schools without failure to open classrooms without walls or doors. But most interesting are the old concepts that resurface from time to time as “cutting edge, innovative, reforms.” It looks like we have another one on our hands with the current renewed interest in “community schools.”

Having been raised in community schools back in the days before bussing and consolidation, it perked my interest. I have long lamented the disappearance of small community or, what we used to call, neighborhood schools. These were schools that children could walk to within their own neighborhoods. I grew up walking to school from K5 through 4th grade while living in the city. At Oakwood Elementary, we students even walked home for lunch and then returned for afternoon classes. The school was small, but neighborhood involvement was high. It was a hub for social activities as well as education. We knew and were known by others. Bullies could not hide in some faceless mob. We supported our school with newspaper drives and scout groups. It was our school.

But the neighborhood school concept was soon seen as outmoded. It was clearly shown on a piece of paper that consolidating into larger schools brought greater cost efficiency and made possible greater course offerings and more special services. Greater numbers of students had to be bussed in and student body populations soared. Coaches loved it because it gave them greater numbers to pick from for athletic teams. Administrator salaries grew proportionally. All sorts of new classes proliferated with special teachers. It was an impressive superstructure to behold. No one seemed to notice the increased anonymity that students experienced. The criminal element loved it. And good students had to claw their way to the top to gain access to student government or sports team leadership. Only one student in 2000 was able to claim the prize of being the band, drum major. PTA was a distant and amorphous activity. After-school activities were privy only to those with transportation. And the politics of control slipped away to some centralized district.

Imagine my amusement when this week’s News Sentinel featured a front page story about our superintendent visiting some “cutting-edge” new schools in Cincinnati called “community schools.” They are smaller, given over to high community involvement, and reflective of the needs and make-up of the local community or neighborhood. Guess what? Parental involvement is higher, school buildings function as a social hub, test scores are higher, and everybody seems happier. I love it. What is old is new again. But it is only politically acceptable if we re-label it as “new” and “innovative.” This new wineskin raises some questions, but if done well, it could be a very positive step in returning American schools back towards their former position of greatness. Now, I wonder how long it will be before they re-introduce the possibility of failure? What could we call it? How about “terminal re-direction”? Pardon my cynicism.

Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe

media

“So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” KJV Galatians 4:31

I am old enough to remember living through the 1960’s when revolutionary changes were rocking our cultural world. We didn’t realize it at the time, but “free speech” agitation on college campuses opened the gateway for all forms of profanity in the public forum and the right to protest, nay, denigrate all cultural norms and icons. Black Power salutes on Olympic platforms and the burning of the American flag as protected rights were some of the inevitable results. In the midst of the storm, it was hard to assess the damage or long term effects.

We are going through a wind storm of change at the present, and it is hard to see just where it will land us. One thing is for sure, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore. Our children are not just using technology at a pace undreamed of ever before, they are becoming obsessive and compulsive in their use of it. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported the results of a study in January saying that daily media use among young people had risen to 7 hours and 38 minutes per day, 7 days per week. When you separate combined use such as listening to an ipod while texting, the number rises to 10 hours 45 minutes per day. Either easily eclipses any full-time job.

That is not all bad news in the eyes of many. Our young are developing multi-tasking skills and honing them to a degree unparalleled in previous generations, a very positive outcome in an increasingly competitive world where efficiency is paramount. Young people are also totally fearless when it comes to new technology and embrace it eagerly with a thirst that is unnerving to their parents. There is also a familiarity with accessing untold numbers of sources and prodigious amounts of information that continues to amaze their teachers. Powerful graphics and visual effects are as much a part of their daily repertoire of available tricks as riding a bicycle or bobbing a yo-yo was to my teen-age peers.

The concerns are piling up as well. Tom Kersting, a student assistance coordinator as well as a psychotherapist, worries that the new media is creating “digital zombies” whose addiction to this flood of instant entertainment and communication is having a negative effect upon the way in which youth think, process information, and relate to one another.* Because they communicate in short, quick bursts of information, they are having a difficult time developing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Kersting is concerned that students are losing the ability to communicate in person with one another, a definite skill that is necessary to navigate complex social situations. Teen-agers now are confessing that they would rather text than actually talk on a phone. Another psychologist, Andy Yeager, questions its effect upon the development of the teen-age brain in its ability to plan ahead, foresee consequences, set long-term goals, and work through them. English teachers are horrified at the mutilation of our language and all constraints of grammar that are now passing for common, everyday, acceptable usage. Taken together, we easily share a “collective shiver” at future prospects.

My simple and unlicensed lament is the loss of basic manipulative skills I see in the rising generations. I look to them to untangle my drivers and internet options, but they look to me for help in hanging a picture. Studs? What are those? Sheet rock? You mean it’s hollow? Painting a wall is like learning a foreign language. Cooking is something the Colonel does. Sewing is an ancient art. And a dripping toilet is something only a plumber could possibly understand. Perhaps I exaggerate. Yet I feel the corrosive effects in my own life as one who was raised to “do it yourself.” My fingers spend more time at a keyboard than manipulating the strings on my acoustic guitar. I have to pry myself away from email to work in my shop. I do not want to become a one-dimensional person, bond-servant to an electronic mistress whose siren call has already enslaved so many. May we be wise enough to recognize the obsessions and compulsions of our age and keep a healthy distance.

        *Knoxville News-Sentinel, 8-10-2010, p. D2, “Hours spent plugged in change kids thinking”  

The Rivers Edge Advantage

“A perverse man sows strife” -Pro. 16:28

You have been there and known the difference.  It may have been a class,
a work place, or even church where you noticed a huge shift in the general
atmosphere within a short period of time after a change of just a few
personnel within that group. It sometimes happens when even one
particular person leaves that the whole demeanor of the group changes
for the better. There is greater openness, more laughter, and even
episodes of joy break out where there was always a bitter edge to the
relationships afore.  It demonstrates the power of one.  Scripture proclaims
that where there is no talebearer, strife ceases (Pro. 26:20).  Sinful
attitudes on the part of a few have a way of reaching out and contaminating
the mood and tone of a whole group.

I remember a number of episodes where group dynamics shifted dramatically
within a short period of time and affected my feelings and attitudes.  The first
involved my high school church youth group.  As a teen-ager, I grew up in a
relatively small church with a peer group of about 20 youth.  Many of them were
related but more importantly, they were secretly living a double life style.  They
did their churchly duties in deference to their parent’s wishes, but at school and
away from church, they were flirting with all the worldly stuff that they could get
away with.  Church youth activities were thus laced with ambivalent feelings on
my part.  It was not a safe or accepting place, and God was definitely not the
center of interest.  I felt estranged and alone.  After I was off at college, the
makeup of the youth group changed dramatically as youth groups are wont to do.
I found myself sucked in whenever I was home and during the summers.  We
became a family and even the least of these was affirmed in some way or another. 
Those friendships continue to this day.

As a young boy, my parents moved to a farm in rural Illinois, and I found myself at a
one-room country school with four grades.  After acclimating, I experienced a
tremendously bonded group of children who affirmed one another in many ways.
I enjoyed school and looked forward to the studies that were quite up to speed in
spite of the many limitations that such a situation entails.  Well, good things like
that can not be allowed to continue, and so the county built a brand new junior high
school and bussed us all to town each day.   Hence, my 7th and 8th grade years
found me swimming in a social pool that was downright terrifying at times.  It
colored my whole middle school experience and was less than satisfying in many
ways.

Many parents at the middle and high school years right now are puzzling as to the
best academic path for their students. We live in a highly competitive age, and we
want to give our students the best edge possible.  But I urge any in this category
to think in terms of the learning environment as well as all of the course offerings
that a school such as Farragut High School could afford.  A student’s performance
can be colored by the dynamic of the group that inhabits any particular class.  I
first learned to love History because of a friendship with another student who
relished with me the chance to discuss the subject matter and the teacher’s
eccentricities.

We, at River’s Edge, have a vision for our new high school that it become a place
where like-minded students will be able to bond and form positive friendships
that will color their attitudes towards the subject matter in a positive direction. For
this purpose, we hope to involve students together in activities ranging from
student government to mission trips. We desire to create a place where students
feel safe from ridicule, worldly peer pressure, and negative attitudes. But more
than that, we desire to bring students together who actually enjoy the challenge
of math, who have a love for the arts, or who delight in literature.  The right kind of
student chemistry can be priceless in developing a passion for learning,
something that will seldom happen in a place where students feel threatened or
burdened with hostile forces arrayed around them.  Our new school will be small
but that can turn into a tremendous advantage as we recruit students who are
people of passion and character.  It is the River’s Edge advantage. 

Twenty Questions

The Twenty Most Pressing Issues to be Faced by the Next Generation

1. Law, culture, and politics: Will the homosexual lifestyle become a protected sub-group with all who speak against it be deemed guilty of ‘hate speech?’ Is there room for religious based knowledge in the public square? What will happen when all religious views are excluded from public life? What is the true definition of “religious freedom” enshrined in our Constitution? What does the separation of church and state really stem from?

2. Education I: It says in Daniel 12.4 that "people will be running to and fro and knowledge shall be increased". Then Paul says in II Timothy 3:7 that people will be "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth". So from that perspective, I think we should be concerned with "What to teach and how to teach it" as educators. What can we teach that will enable our students to be able to "discern between good and evil" and what do they need to know to avoid "the tree of knowledge of good and evil". These are deep issues with no simple solution.

3. Education II: Will the public schools destroy themselves on the opposing priorities of raising standards and insuring that all students graduate? What will Christians do in the face of this protracted stalemate?

4. Technology I: the kids of this generation have instant communication and know all kinds of things that grandparents don't know. How will we control the influx of knowledge that they are receiving from all of these devices? And should we?

5. Technology II: Although we are able to communicate instantly from almost anywhere in the world, we are an increasingly isolated people. How do we balance this “time for which we are fitted and chosen”? We must keep fellowship with God and His believers, we must battle all of the increasing lures of time and resources, and, yet, we must remain sane while doing so.

6. Technology III: King Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been in ancient times before us. ” Perhaps modern challenges are, at the core, not new challenges, just restated, rehashed problems of old in somewhat different scenarios. Technological development has a way of magnifying what is already in the human heart. It is a means of enhancing the capabilities of man to promote good or evil in a swifter, more efficient, more effective manner, to make one either more productive or more destructive. Technological development, while benign in and of itself towards good and evil, most certainly has an impact. Technological development changes the scenario so that exercising the sin nature is relatively easy and effortless, perhaps as easy as pressing a button. However, the same technology can be used to promote God’s truth to the world in a more efficient manner than has ever been possible before. One person, regardless of age, money, or influence can be a world missionary from his own home. I propose that a worthy challenge we have as a generation is, “How can we use the technological resources available to us in creative ways, to impact this generation for Jesus Christ?” and “What dangers do technological development present to us because of the nature of the human heart?”

7. Environment I: The synergistic effects of multiple contaminants on the human body and environment. (In layman's terms, we have some understanding of how single contaminants impact us and the environment at different concentrations but how do they work together to impact us when they are mixed and what effect do different mixes have on impacted individuals).

8. Environment II: What is the true impact of humans on our environment and how should that affect the regulations that govern our lives. (The global warming issue falls under this question but it is much broader than that single issue.)

9. Culture and faith: “How do we teach and strengthen our faith and dependence on God when we live in a society of gross over abundance?” He has been to Ukraine a couple of times on mission trips. He is awed by how much they do and how happy they are with so few resources. A friend of our living in Ukraine has told us more than once that when a Ukrainian moves to the States, their faith often dies.

10. Economic: If and when the economy collapses in some way or another under the crushing load of debt currently being amassed, how will our children survive and flourish? How can we best achieve financial independence for families in a world economy founded on unstable premises? How much of the world’s system do we buy into and how creative do we need to be in regard to education and job training?

11. Science and sociology: What does it mean to be “human” and what, if any, distinguishing features and rights separate us from the animal kingdom?

12. Culture and politics: What foundational principles are at risk when we elevate diversity as a supreme value as opposed to the Christian consensus upon which this country was based?

13. Medicine and politics I: What protections need to be placed upon human life? How has legalized abortion affected our attitudes towards the sanctity of all human life? Can we contain our schizophrenic viewpoints without a total breakdown of the American health-care ethos?

14. Medicine and politics II: What will be the future of medical care in view of its spiraling costs, government interdiction, and uncontained litigation? Can we manage to find a creative, affordable, and compassionate alternative for our families and the body of Christ?

15. Culture and Faith: Pornography has become one of our major industries, and its allure and ease of access has penetrated nearly every home in America at some point in time. Can we stem this tide personally or as a nation, and can we rescue marriages, families, and the participants in this deadly trade from enslavement and destruction?

16. World politics: What will be the ultimate result of the push for a global economy and one-world culture? Is nationalism totally dead? Are cultural differences real or imagined?

17. Culture and religion: How can we reclaim generations of children raised without fathers and turn their hearts toward the Heavenly Father? How can we uphold the standard of the sanctity and inviolate status of marriage and extend compassion to the single parents laboring under heavy burdens of raising children by themselves? How do we balance mercy and truth in this tender sphere?

18. Culture and politics: How do we retain any cultural, legal, and political identity as a nation when immigration continues to be largely uncontrolled? What forces are actively arrayed against controlled and restricted immigration policies? What will the face of our country look like 50 years from now? Are there any redemptive aspects of this shift in population make-up?

19. Economic growth, population: How will the declining birth rates remake the countries of the world and change the economic balance of world power?

20. Religion: Who will win the battle for the hearts and minds of the 10-40 window of world populations: Christianity or Islam? Will Islam continue its aggressive expansion or wither in the face of rapid communications growth?

Questions

“Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.” -KJV John 3:25

Education, like youth, is wasted on the young, or so the saying goes. Like any proverb, there is an element of truth present that makes rebuttal difficult. I must admit that much of my education was poured upon me at an age when my maturity level was largely impervious to either truth or the disciplines necessary for mastery. In today’s educational jargon, we would use the word “readiness” to describe that state of being where a child is actually ready or not ready to receive the assigned lessons.

A painful memory for me comes from my senior year in high school when, for one reason or another, I decided to pick up the book, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoyevsky and read it just for fun. Now there is an oxymoron for you: reading a Russian novel “just for fun.” I am not sure it can be done. Russian novels are always daunting especially as the progression of characters passes the two dozen mark. Yet, there I was, proudly carrying a black paperback copy around school and earnestly pressing my way through it. To my credit, I actually finished it. The trouble is that I could never tell you what it was really about. I was driven more by vanity and show rather than any intellectual pursuit of truth. I loved the reaction from teachers and other students who were so duly impressed by my literary tastes. It was a totally hollow experience.

In high school, I was simply and totally unprepared for the questions and issues raised in the book. Now, I have been challenged once again to read “The Brothers Karamazov” as one of the top 100 books every person should read in their lifetime. There are many compelling reasons for placing the book in this elite position and many would argue for its inclusion as it deals with many of the great issues of life, love, and faith that thinking adults are prone to contemplate. I am pondering taking another turn at this famous novel, this time bringing with me a lifetime of experience that has made me aware of the great issues and questions of life.

If I have a bone to pick with many upper level History and literature books, it is that they do not always identify what great issues are being addressed in the pages and pages of text that are provided. I always made a point to never promise my young History students that they would leave my class with all the answers. I did hope that they would take away an understanding of what the great questions were. One cannot appreciate an answer unless one understands the question. Reading the book of Romans is daunting to a young reader unless one understands that there is great tension between faith and works and a history of debate as to what is the real basis of salvation.

What I would like to do is challenge my readership with coming up with a list of the 20 top questions or issues of our day be they theological, social, economic, political, or environmental. We have just been examining the question of the basis for human dignity. It is a question for our age because of the challenge of secular, Darwinian humanism. Former generations never even questioned this because there was such wide agreement. Not now. So what issues would you nominate as the top 20 questions facing this next generation? I encourage you to submit your entries as a comment. Try to focus them as tightly as possible preferably no more than 100 to 200 words max. We will then comb through them, and our staff will argue the top finalists. Feel free to submit 1, 5, or all 20.

It is my hope to use this as fuel for thought and direction in our middle and high school classes. It will be a curriculum that is problem driven by the challenges our children will actually have to face.

History

“Let them bring forth, and declare unto us what shall happen: declare ye the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.” -Isa. 41:22

I do not believe that I have yet to see a pithier job description for a historian than Isa. 41:22. It is in the context of a mock challenge that the Lord issues much as Job was challenged to answer if he had comprehended the earth in its breadth or could number the clouds. As daunting a challenge as it is, the true historian attempts to do just that, to look closely at the former things and declare what actually happened and from there make predictions on how nations and peoples will follow in suit when like conditions mature in the same order. The book of Proverbs is a collection of prophecies based upon observations of past behavior that indicate probabilities of outcomes from future behavior. We have that ability to learn from the past in order that we might not repeat the same mistakes. But human behavior is bewilderingly complicated and conditions rarely ever recreate themselves exactly. Then there is the Lord who can interject His hand at any point and turn the events of man to serve His eternal purposes. These things taken together make the job of a conscientious historian incredibly challenging.

We should never underestimate how important that job is in laying down paths for future generations to follow. Solomon’s Proverbs declare his purpose from the outset to “instruct in wise dealing, in righteousness and justice and equity” (Pro. 1:3). These things can be taught, he maintains, but not without a foundation of knowledge based upon past history and insightful observation. I was thrilled to pass by a quote in our History Fair from William Penn, the American pioneer of religious freedom in Pennsylvania, who said, “Men must be subject to God or ruled by tyrants.” How interesting that way back in the late 1600’s this man had such insight into human nature and History that he could make such a bold pronouncement. There is no more relevant truth for our age than this. We are in the middle of a flood tide of effort to take liberty to the limits of license and time will tell if the wheels will all come off of our society with the only remedy, despotism, not far behind.

It was a joy to see our school reveling in the stories and costumes of bygone eras. We must cherish these stories both for our inspiration and the dire warnings they contain. I look to Abraham Lincoln to see the power and beauty of self-deprecating humor utilized to teach and lead others. I read the story of Theodore Roosevelt to see a lust for life in both robust action and scholarship. I thrill at the hunger of Peter the Great for knowledge of things great and small, the new, and the unexplored. I am humbled by the wisdom of Alexander Solzhenitsyn gained almost exclusively through suffering. I am amazed at the grace of Booker T. Washington in handling disadvantage and discovering the joy of work well done. I shudder at the history of Lenin to see a man so twisted and bent beyond recognition by hate and bitterness. I wince at the story of Robespierre to see what enormous wreckage that could come from a man of simple tastes, steely discipline, and total dedication to the law. All these and more are my teachers. No one could ask for greater.

I trust your students found something this week to inspire admiration or horror, inspiration or pity, comprehension or incomprehension in the lives of those they studied. I learned that the actual name of the famous Cherokee Indian Chief, Sequoyah, was George (something or another). “Sequoyah” actually was a nickname gained through a hunting accident and means “pig’s foot.” My, my, how names that now have the ring of such reverence and sophistication actually comes from such humble origins. I doubt that all our friends living in Sequoyah Hills, one of Knoxville’s oldest and most prestigious neighborhoods, would be thrilled to know they live in “Pig’s Foot Hills.” Nor would “George” be a very memorable name for the Cherokee’s most celebrated chieftain. It is a reminder that it is the man that makes the name and not the other way around.

Christmas 2009

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. -KJV Matthew 2:1-2

Every experienced teacher knows of at least a few exciting moments when they have come up with a razzle dazzle lesson plan that “wowed” their students and brought their enthusiasm to a fever pitch. Great teachers live for those moments and yearn for more of them day by day. Students love it as well whenever learning is coupled with fun and excitement of any kind but especially days that include anything involving a live animal, loud noises, real paint, or a combination of smoke and fire. We educators understand the power of excitement and hands-on discovery and would love to infuse every lesson with fireworks or rabbits popping out of hats. Unfortunately, there is much in education that just does not lend itself to the dramatic. A good teacher can bring a certain amount of drama to any subject, and this administrator will encourage that at every turn. But try as we will, there are always those stretches in the educational journey where progress can only be achieved by a good supply of practice, repetition, and memorization that borders on or camps out in the bland land of the tedious.

Teachers have been made to feel guilty, at times, in today’s high energy world for lapses in the school day where repetitious exercises and drill are relied upon to imprint a concept or idea. Avant-guard teachers are even praised for not requiring any homework whatsoever on the part of their students. Yet we know that there is much to be gained through routine and daily practice that may, indeed, be entirely devoid of dramatics or “fun.” Artists will even tell us that discipline, commitment to practice, routine, and structure are the gateway to creative accomplishment having any lasting and real merit. Bertrand Russell wrote of the necessity to bear with the boredom of structure and discipline and argued that any society “that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men...unduly divorced from the slow processes of nature, in which every vital impulse withers.”*

I looked to the Christmas story this year and saw many instances where the main characters moved slowly to the center stage of world history through days, months, and even years of tedious labor. Shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night, a dreadfully dull duty when all others about them were asleep in their beds. Joseph subjected himself to the tediously slow pace of a cumbersome and pregnant young woman with many special needs while blindly following inconvenient orders that were the despised idea of a foreign king. And the wise men were professionals all who had dedicated years of study to their craft, patiently and studiously charting the heavens. They scratched at the puzzle of the ages of how all the stars swam in relationships that kept changing but yet seemed tied together in some ingenious dance. These wise men were products of a lifetime of study dedicated to a line of work that promised no immediate reward. Yet when the star appeared, they were there looking, observing, and alert to see its implications when everyone else saw nothing at all.

May we be found faithful in the dry valleys of duty while others chase after a mirage of shimmering illusion leading nowhere; an illusion that issues the siren call of instantaneous gratification, quick results, and easy execution. May we lead our children by word and example showing them how to persevere through adversity, weariness, and strain to obtain the rewards of both earthly study and eternal preparation. Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Gal. 6:9). There are enough little men about us.

* As cited in Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me (New York: Riverhead Books, 2008), 41

Critical Thinking

“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” Proverbs 4:26

For several weeks now, we have been featuring articles about critical thinking. Our capacity for rational thought is a wonderful and incredible gift from God and distinguishes us from the rest of creation. It is our aim in the educational process to awaken this gift and sharpen it for the glory of God. To neglect and stifle our capacity for thought is tantamount to hiding our “talent” in the ground like the wicked and slothful servant. God commands us to “ponder the path of our feet,” to think carefully of where our lives are headed and to willingly choose His ways over our own. Joshua succinctly summarized the challenge to all humanity when he challenged the children of Israel to “…choose you this day whom ye will serve…” (Josh. 24:15). Our gift of rationality is rooted in our free will given to us by God so that we may choose to serve him willingly and not as the angels do, out of compulsion.

The famous French sculptor, Rodin, has left us with a powerful image in his statue of “The Thinker.” It is the ultimate picture of one engaged in deep and careful thought. What most folks do not know is that this particular sculpture was part of a much larger frieze that surrounded a majestic and ornate set of doors. The whole piece was a depiction of scenes from Dante’s Inferno which describes several layers of hell in increasing terror. Over the top and center of these doors sits “the thinker” contemplating the destiny of his eternal soul. What a wonderful portrayal of how seriously we should take Pro. 4:26 above.

In a day and age where we can access incredible boatloads of information at a touch of the finger and where the media is overwhelming us with messages of every kind, we need discerning minds and spirits as never before “…that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive….” (Eph. 4:14). God is calling us out to be men and women whose minds are girded up to receive the end of our faith (1Pet. 1:13).

But now comes the disclaimer, and it is big. Critical thinking will not in and of itself make us good persons or even necessarily lead us to a knowledge of the most high God. Because of the fall, our rational capacities are unreliable and capable of great self-deception. We can all tell stories of some of the most quick minded but evil people we would ever not want to meet. Pol Pot, the mass murderer of Cambodia, had a college education from France. Lenin was a keen intellectual of the highest order. Your own children are proof of the tremendous ingenuity and capability of the human mind for manufacturing excuses and shifting blame. It is the heart of man that is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). We need a heart transplant as well as an education. Our theology should determine our morality, but often it is the other way around. Our morality is quite capable of determining our theology.

The heart and the mind need renewing. They represent two ends of a stick held in tension. We choose God with our minds, and He, in turn, changes our hearts. God touches our hearts with his love, and then renews our minds with His Holy Spirit illumining His truth to us. Which comes first? Not quite sure. But as beings created in His image, I know we are to be people of incredibly loving hearts and sound minds. May we grow up to the fullness of who He created us to be.

Mercy and Truth,