The 2019-2020 school year ended like none of us would have ever dreamed or imagined. If you are a teacher or student, you understand that relationships on screen are taxing and you appreciate more than ever the adrenaline we all receive from interacting face to face on our school campuses. I grieve the loss of an on campus spring semester from celebrating seniors to impromptu conversations with students. The hustle and bustle of fourth quarter is exhilarating. In all the loss, one positive aspect for me this fourth quarter of remote teaching was the digital dialogue I had with my high school students. I found my students writing thoughts in their online submissions that they would have never shared out loud in class. I wanted to share some of the virtual classroom dialogue I had as a Bible teacher with my students. I hope you are encouraged as you overhear the posed question, students’ written submissions, and my responses.
Q: What are your thoughts on the authority of God and the authority of Scripture?
Student: “God was the one who created us, but he created sinners, which could only mean that he is not as perfect as the Bible claims. So has the Bible or God lied to us? Does someone like this deserve to be trusted? And if God has full authority over us, then shouldn’t he take responsibility for our actions . . . if you think about it, Adam and Eve should not have been held responsible for committing the first sin. It should have been God who took responsibility for their actions and everyone’s sins.”
My response: God is perfect and the God of truth. He cannot lie or commit any other sin. In the beginning, God created all things good (creation and humanity), yet he created humanity with free will. He didn’t create sin, that would go against his nature. However, he did create people (Adam and Eve) with the ability to choose. Like any of us would have, they chose poorly. They chose to know good and evil. They, not God, chose sin. The good news of the gospel is that God, though he did not need to, did take responsibility for our sinful actions. Rather than holding us accountable, he held his Son, Jesus, accountable. Jesus’s death on the cross means we are let off the hook because Jesus put himself on the hook. He took the hit for us. We should have been held responsible because the mess of sin was our doing, not God’s, yet he took the punishment that we deserve. Because God chose to deal with our sin by punishing himself, who is perfect, I find him very trustworthy. I hope you begin to find him trustworthy, too. I love hearing your thoughts and dialoguing with you about God. I hope you find these reflections help. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Student: “When I’m going about my normal day and not really thinking too much about it I’m like, well yeah, of course there is a God who created everything and sent his son to die for us, because I grew up hearing this truth and it’s all I’ve ever known. But if I really think about it, I’m like, well how do we know it’s true? How do we know that some other religion out there isn’t the “right one.” And that kind of freaks me out because what happens if we aren’t following the right one. But I just keep doing what I’ve always done which is pray and believe in what I’ve always been told because I would love for it to be true – that when we die that’s not the end, and we go to heaven. I love to believe that all my sins are paid for and that there is something much greater than me that has control over my life because it would be a horrible life if I was the one controlling it.”
My response: I’ve had that exact thought before about “how do we know that some other religion out there isn’t the right one.” Then, I remember little facts like no other religion spread as quickly as Christianity, meaning there wasn’t enough time after Christ’s death and resurrection and when the New Testament books were written for Christianity to be a made up legend. The legends in other religions took hundreds of years to develop whereas the authors of the NT wrote about Christ just decades after his death and resurrection. I also think about how our faith is the only one that is personal. No other god says – I will walk with you, I will lead you, and you can trust me because I took on flesh and blood, died, and conquered death by raising from the dead. I want to encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 15, and then, brace yourself, the entire book of Romans. I think you’ll find over and over – this faith I claim for myself is real, and I can trust it because of the person of Christ and what he has accomplished.
Q: How do you need to let Jesus handle your anxieties today?
Student: “I need to trust that my worries are things God can take control of and that he can take my worries away. Most of the time, though, I worry too much and cause myself to believe that things right now will never get better. I lose patience and want things to be okay all the time.”
My response: I always love hearing your heart and mind through your responses. What you’re longing for, dear, is eternity. As you know, we’re not promised comfort or perfection here on earth. Keep longing for what’s ahead, and every time you feel like things can’t get better, remind yourself of the day ahead when everything will be beyond better. It will be perfect, and we will be at peace. Have a good weekend! Love you!
Student: “I need to just be willing to go to God with everything I’m feeling. I don’t know why, but I want to do my own thing and not let him into my life. I’d rather sit in my resentment and anger than experience hope. I’m frustrated because I don’t feel better when I go to him, but the truth is that it’s so much better in His arms because there’s actual hope with him. I get so depressed by myself.”
My response: I remember being your age and having times of feeling what you described. I wouldn’t necessarily feel resentful or angry, but I would feel like I was coasting through life in neutral. It’s hard growing up as we have, not because we are lacking, but because we have so much. Most people around the world have to overcome unimaginable pain and suffering. In places like our hometowns, we have to overcome always wanting and expecting life to be easy and picture perfect. When it’s not, I feel cheated then I have to remind myself that I’m expecting my current life to measure up to my forever, future home in the Kingdom. I guess it’s not fair of me to put that demand on life this side of the grave or Christ’s return.
Q: What will it be like when you see Jesus face to face?
Student: “I am eager to see Jesus face to face so I can understand why all of it had to be this way, and so I can know that all of it had a purpose and a plan, and be comforted that He really did care all along. I can get so caught up in the things I love about this earth that I can forget that all I could ever need or want can be found in him and will be satisfied in heaven when I see him as He truly is. The pain of this world just seems unnecessary sometimes. I know that it will be like a passing moment compared to the glory of heaven, so how can it have any real purpose or importance? I’m eager to be done trying to figure it all out on my own.”
My response: All I know from God’s Word and other people who have suffered is that the pain drew them to Jesus. God could have removed the thorn from Paul’s flesh. Paul asked him to remove it, yet God chose to use it. Somehow Paul wouldn’t have become who he became or maybe even given us what he did in writing if he didn’t have that particular pain. I don’t get it either, but I trust that God has his purposes. It’s like we’re looking at the underside of a tapestry with the threads all out of place, but God sees the full picture on the other side. I believe in the coming Kingdom we will also see the fuller picture and then the threads hanging down all scraggly looking will make sense.
Student: “I just have so many questions that I would want to ask him. I would just want to sit down and talk for a few hours.”
My response: Well, the good news is you’ll have forever to talk with him. I don’t know if this will encourage you or not, but I have found in my walk with Christ that I can talk with him and ask him those questions even now. A lot he has answered, some questions he answered decades later (no joke), and other answers I will have to wait for when I see him face to face. In Proverbs 2, we’re told if we call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and look for it as we would for hidden treasure, then we will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. I pray that will be the journey of your life.
Q: What little kingdoms of your own are you holding onto that you need to submit to God?
Student: “One of them is obviously the way that I thought my senior year would go. I had an idea of how it would end up going, and it has not been that way. I know God has a plan for it all, but it feels like I’ve been screwed over. This time is not easy and makes me mad a lot because I don’t know why this is happening.”
My response: I’m so sorry our current situation is the reality of your senior year. I’ve been reading The Case For Fatih by Lee Strobel and am encouraged by these words about suffering. I hope they encourage you, too.
“When we suffer . . . maybe it’s God’s way of defeating the devil.”
“The point of our lives in this world isn’t comfort, but training and preparation for eternity.”
Hang in there! There is a point and a purpose.
And to my readers, I will reiterate – Hang in there. There is a point and a purpose.