Seeking

So I'm teaching at a Christian school. I definitely feel that God has called me to the public schools... eventually. But for now I'm really enjoying my time teaching at a place that allows room for discussion about God.

Twice a week (for one hour each), we teach a Bible class to our homeroom students. This one hour tends to intimidate me more often than not because I have no training teaching this sort of class. The nice thing is that its left pretty open for us to do what we want. We have had some awesome times in my bible class!

It all started when I had the entire class opened up for questions that the students have - anything in the bible that seems to contradict, or not make any sense. The very first question was,

"Why does God allow evil?"

And I was blown away. The student had no idea the philosophical implications at asking such a question, a question that has caused more people to doubt the existence of God than any other single topic, a question that graduate students take entire classes to explore the depths of. And this student is in 10th grade.

I understand that these students are actually pretty mature, and they are coming into their own understanding of the world. Because of this, I do very little lecture and allow the students the space to ask questions and discuss freely anything they feel led to. We had an awesome discussion about this topic, but I knew that this was not something we'd tackle in one sitting and be done with.

Today, we talked more about evil and suffering. We read an article that discusses this very topic. The author argues that we do not serve an apathetic God, and that a person who can be content in our tragic world does not, cannot love - but that the one who does love, "seeks to eradicate suffering by entering into it rather than denying it." This was so enlightening to me, and I hope the students began to see it as well. That we serve a God who loves, who explores the depths of human suffering and leaves us not alone, but comforted.

I can't answer for anyone else, especially these students, why evil exists. It would be a disservice of me to answer this question for the students. I think they need to struggle with this topic on their own, and come to their own understanding. I know the end of the story, but I refuse to allow that to lead me to be content in the "here and now," and with the tragedy all around us.

We talked about much more in that class period, but I hope the students are beginning to see that our God does not sit idly by while the world turns, while the world hurts, while the world suffers. But we serve a God who wipes away our tears, and remembers our suffering - and brings us to a place of redemption...

of freedom...

May we remember that God suffers much more than we do at the hands of evil, may I be empowered to share truth to these students... for they are desperately seeking.