Have The Conversation Lent Day 7

This is going to be a short blog today. But its message is a simple one and it came from a chat I had today in my classroom...

It came about during a grade 10 lesson. We are studying the old Greek fart nugget 'Oedipus Rex'. I find students really get into a play when you preface it by telling them it is a play about a guy who kills his dad and marries his mom. The play is about the power of prophesy and its ability to change the shape of the future. 

At some point in the teaching of this play we hit the inevitable debate about prophesy. And it is a very grey area. People prophesy in Christianity. Sometimes they get it wrong. And our fallen world is full of voices, powerful ones, that seek to make us live in the tomorrow rather than live by the grace we have been promised for today. 

I am hugely aware that we exist in a world where we have to be sensitive to the multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-gendered choices... so many multis...of those around us. But that shouldn't stop us from having those conversations. The ones where we gently state our beliefs without attacking those around us. For me this conversation is about acknowledging the vast plethora of ways in which people can seek to find direction while at the same time remaining very clear about where I find my direction and why. 

Being a teacher means that I need to be firm in what I believe in order to be able to love those around me and model my belief system in a very tangible and physical way for my students. But, I would argue, we are all teachers. We all have people in our lives who seek to navigate their own way in life based on the example we set for them. If you are a parent then you are a teacher. And the same applies to bosses, colleagues, friends, the lady in the shopping aisle. 

People called Jesus 'Rabbi'  - teacher. If we are to be Christlike then we need to know that the example we set, that the discussions we are prepared to have, that the lessons we are prepared to both learn and impart to others will reflect Christ to those around us. Jesus didn't always surround himself with like-minded people, its too easy to fit into that herd, He was prepared to have the conversations - the difficult ones. The ones with broken, questioning people. The ones that exposed demons. The ones that truly showed his capacity for forgiveness and grace. My students wont learn if I do not teach them, the same applies to those who don't know Christ - they will not learn if we do not teach them.

We are often so afraid to speak about what we believe in because we are afraid to offend people that we silence the voice inside us that says - 'this is not right, you know this in not right, why are you silent?' If, in all things, we seek to find the voice of Christ in what we say then we know that we will only be speaking the truth. There can be no retribution for that. 

And so today my challenge to both myself (and to whoever is still reading this blog) is to not be afraid to have the conversations. Remember that where two or more are gathered there He will be. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will find your words for you and in teaching others about your Christ maybe you will discover more about Him too.