Knowing God - Psalm 119:81

(fp)

My soul faints with longing for your salvation;

therefore, I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 119:81

 

This morning I was reading about a nineteenth century educational philosophy that is gaining fresh momentum in many private schools across America.

 

Imagine a triangle, say its proponents, with teacher, text, and tot at the points.

 

The traditional model of education has the teacher at the top. We've all encountered the model of teacher as lecturer and teacher as authoritative interpreter of the text.

 

A more modern method has the student at the top with self-esteem and self-expression being the principal goals. And while student-oriented education sounds noble, children (humans) don't need any more encouragement to think the world revolves around them, that authority figures are there to cater to their needs, and that a text is waiting for their own interpretation to be authoritative.

 

This new/old style of learning puts the text at the top with students and teachers serving as partners in trying to understand what the text has to say.

 

In classical education the texts may be a novel by Dostoyevsky, a play be Shakespeare, or a painting by Renior.

 

In life, the text is scripture.

 

The Bible isn't about you (the glorified student on top), and it isn't about me (the authoritative teacher who knows better than the text), the Bible is about God who is revealing pieces of his nature through his Word. And when we put the text of God's Word at the top of our learning -- with you and I as partners in looking to understand -- then we learn infinitely more. In fact, we may even learn to see God.

 

In Christ's Love,

an autograph seeker ...

 

my hope is in God's Word

and I want to get close enough

to the author to get

his signature