Das Bier und Die Studenten
2 Comments Published by Michael on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 8:21 AM.
I had my German tutoring this morning...thus the title just seemed to flow. Aside from the showing off of my remedial language skills, there is a point to the title (Beer and Students). I daily learn lessons about myself from my 6th grade class, and as hard as I try to explain it to them they just don't understand clearly. I will give it a shot here, though.
First, the story. It is Valentine's Day today, and my kids came into my classroom beside themselves with excitement, anticipating giving and receiving various gifts and tokens of affection. I must confess that I have an aversion to V-Day, and more or less feel it is a non-holiday and should be treated as such. I decided not to be a complete kill-joy, though, and told them they could have some time to partake in the Valentine's-goodness, but with one stipulation. There are certain homework and various school-related duties that must be performed each morning, and I told them that they must make these a priority. At best, half of them did as they were told, and the majority did a partial job, which I might could have lived with, but there is always one. The one this morning, Z, chose to do what she wanted and nothing else. She refused to acknowledge both her assignment and my repeated warnings to obey. Thus she earned the class the wrathful hand of Coach Stone (yes, as gay as it sounds, that is how I am referred to around here). I swiftly struck Valentine's day dead with a crushing blow, and ensured its eternal burial by threatening a citation to anyone caught with V-Day paraphenalia in my classroom today. Her actions, along with those of others, caused pain and death (a bit exagerrated, but follow me).
Is this not the quintessential picture of all of us? Those of us who have come to know Christ have been freed from the law of sin and death, and with this comes freedom. We are free indeed, free to live and honor God with all things, such as art, community, academics...etc. The list is utterly endless, but our abuse of these is the cause of our destruction. We are given a proverbial inch, but we demand a mile. After all, we are entitled to it, right? Our lack of understanding concerning moderation and the discipline to act upon our understanding have robbed us of the beauties of freedom and in effect made us slaves to sin once again.
I use the example of beer for two reason: firstly, it is quite tasty, but more importantly it has been used in my life as a tool for the deeper understanding of my liberty. I grew up in a 'good-Southern-Baptist-family', and the drinking of beer was an act of rebellion on my part in high school, because it was shown to me to be a sinful act of Godless people. How could a Christian, a real Christian, drink alcohol? It has only been in these last few years that my eyes have been opened to the freedom of a believer to responsibly enjoy beer. I have been involved in Bible studies over a beer, worshipped and prayed with a beer in my hand, and, yes, even met a beer-brewing church elder. I have toasted a Guiness with a noted Theologian and devout believer, who comes from a long line beer makers of the same name, and I have even had a drink with a Cistercian monk. In short, I have found beer drinking to have heightened my understanding of God, and have come to know Him more intimately as a result.
I recognize this morning, though, that this same enjoyable experience might be so easily abused and become something entirely different. Were I to give in to the sinful desire to over-indulge in beer, I could become mastered by it, and the result would be destruction. Just as my students abused their freedom and earned punishment, so too might I earn a measure of punishment and pain if I chose to take my freedoms too far.
You know how it goes... sometimes one Blog will lead you to another, then another... I am delighted to 'stumble upon' your Blog. It is a blessing to get to know you and Julie. Your recent post was thought-provoking. I was raised to think beer was evil! However, I don't want to abuse this freedom. I appreciated this post. By the way, I got that back toilet plunged today :P (And.. I'm glad to know that other teachers out there are super firm when rules aren't followed. It's for their own good!!)
Amen.
...and AMEN.
Wish I could drink beer.
Stupid allergies.