Teacher to Teacher - December 2008 - (Page 7)

in my driveway. As I get out of my car and shut the door, a man I do not recognize comes out my front door, expresses horror, jumps into the car, and drives away, squealing the tires. What do I conclude? In fact, there are two directions my thinking can go. I can conclude that my wife is seeing another man. Or I can conclude that she is planning a surprise party for me and that the party planner just got caught leaving the house. Which option will come to my mind first? It depends entirely on the state of my relationship with my wife. If we are close and the relationship is healthy, I will tell myself to act surprised when the party starts. If we are not, my thoughts will turn in a darker direction. So what do we conclude when God does something that looks suspicious? It depends entirely on the state of our relationship with Him. If we know Him well, we trust Him; and if we do not, we don’t. That means that when you or your students express distrust about what God is doing, you are making a statement about the health of your spiritual life.17 As a teacher and counselor, you 17 need to bring more into that discussion than philosophy and abstraction; you need to turn to questions about the relationship and to solutions for spiritual health.18 In the end this is a devotional question, not merely a philosophical one. Sometimes we just need to trust Him—not blindly, because He has given us ample reasons to trust Him, but we need to trust Him nonetheless. I am not suggesting that anyone who doubts God is spiritually dead or even spiritually sick. In times of great crisis, great saints have great doubts and express great sorrow and frustration. We are not yet glorified. But when the believer’s first instinct is consistently to distrust God’s motives and to doubt His goodness, his relationship with God is pathological. 18 I have written before about the means of grace, the key to a spiritual exercise program. “Misplaced Priorities,” Teacher to Teacher 9:1 (March 2005), 2. Available online at http:// www.bjupress.com/resources/articles/t2t/0901 .pdf. continued on page 10 Is God leading you to an administrative ministry? BJU’s master’s program in educational leadership offers you courses in Designed for Christian school administrators, church or school business managers, principals, assistant principals, and supervisors BJu Academic excellence with a biblical worldview BJU does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, or national or ethnic origin. ©2008 Bob Jones University SE T2T0308 Teacher to Teacher | December 2008 page 7 http://www.bjupress.com/product/256271 http://www.bjupress.com/product/256271 http://www.bjupress.com/product/256271 http://www.bju.edu

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