Relevance

Recruitment Ad for Antarctic Expedition

Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1914

"When first conceived, an idea is a breakthrough; once adopted and repeated, it tends to become a cul-de-sac." Abraham Joshua Heschel

After fourteen months of unemployment, I am teaching again. Last week I wanted to quit. That, I suppose, is the life of a teacher. Like Sir Shackleton's description of an expedition, the wages tend to be small (no one becomes a teacher for the pay- you can make more money by managing a Taco Bell) with long months of complete darkness. But then it happens, the moment every true teacher yearns to see- the phenomenon known as the 'aha' moment, when the veil is parted and the light comes on. In my life, the Lord puts enough distance between the 'aha's' to keep me going (too many, too often might make me prideful).

During the summer, while still unemployed, I was visiting Hugh Gill. He looked at me and said, "You will be teaching soon, but not like you've ever taught before." He spoke prophecy over me that day. Now I am teaching with the good folk at Trinity Christian Preparatory School, or Trinity Prep for short. It is an amazing and challenging place. The old ways of teaching seem different here. Some of them don't work at all. Hugh was right. I have been praying for strategy. God is re-teaching me how to teach. Yesterday He reminded me that He made my students uniquely unique- as only He does. I cannot approach them with a 'bread' recipe, i.e., "If I follow these steps a perfect loaf will result." No, if I can teach them anything it will be to embrace their uniqueness, to explore the possibilities of what it means to be made in the image of God, the possibilities God Himself has instilled within them. The methodology then will not be learner-based or curriculum-based but God-based outcome.

There is a war being waged against our youth. The forces of darkness are building walls, attempting to erect gates around young minds. In 1986 Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his book Night. As he accepted the award he said this:

"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere."

"This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. "

Matthew 16:18

The Message

Portrait of a Student

Alex Jamison

Prayer For Joshua

Teresa Carter

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen- one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, "Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the LORD your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder- twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' Then you can tell them, 'They remind us that the Jordan river stopped flowing when the Ark of the LORD's Covenant went across.'Joshua 4:4-7

\ab-ˈstrakt, ˈab-ˌ\ Medieval Latin abstractus, from Latin, past participle of abstrahere to drag away, from abs-, ab- + trahere to pull, draw. 1.not easy to understand because of being extremely complex, remote from concrete reality, etc.; abstruse

I once heard Tony Martin, an artist/pastor from Great Britain give a lecture on Abstract art. It was a small gathering in a Memphis coffee shop called the Ugly Mug. He used the Joshua 4 passage as a defense, or rather, permission for Christians to participate in the production of Abstraction- as a means of presenting the Gospel. It was beautiful. For years I struggled with abstraction. Sometimes a lack of understanding is accompanied by suspicion. I wondered if Abstract art was legitimate, valid, or, as I had been told- 'an inability to do better, a cop out'. In a paper entitled, Toward A Prophetic Aesthetic, Greg Card said, "The challenge is to present/implement something in the material realm that represents the dynamic of the revealed spiritual dimension."

I suppose the thing I struggled most with was the notion that 'art is serious play.'

When Calvin Seerveld stayed in our home, he had a private conversation with Terri about painting. She told him she wanted to be a better realist. He asked, "Why?" It is a simple question with profound implications. He suggested, "enjoy the process, have fun...play with the paint."

And so, the years have passed. My understanding and appreciation continues. My vocabulary of the language of art increases. Sometimes what isn't said speaks loudly. Sometimes it takes the abstract. Thank you Tony, and Greg, and Calvin.

"Certain experiences may be transmitted by language, others-more profound-by silence; and then there are those that cannot be transmitted, not even by silence." Elie Wiesel

Calvin Seerveld and Teresa Carter, seriously speaking on having fun