Classifying Sins: Pets or Monsters?

We humans can be very inconsistent creatures. We like to think that we have things all figured out and are always reasonable……but we most certainly don’t and aren’t. I was thinking about this while making lunch today. What brought it to mind was thinking about how we inadvertently and perhaps unconsciously classify and think about sin/sins. Everybody has at least two classes into which they group types of faults: pets and monsters. {In this post, I use “we” because I think everyone does this. But each of us as individuals has our own pets and monsters.}

Pet sins are those ones that I might admit I do but that I make excuses for or try to explain away. They’re like my pet bird Bluebonnet. As I was trying to type the first part of this post, he was running around on the keyboard, playing with my fingers and wanting me to pay attention to him and give him kisses. Sometimes our pets can be so very annoying! Sometimes we may even despise them. But other times we love them and anything they do seems cute.

Now to the monsters. This group is for those sins we always recognize as horrible—the things that we would never never do, try to avoid at all costs, and are always quick to judge others for doing. Things like (in my upbringing) getting drunk, gambling, murder, adultery, etc. We view this class of sins as horrible villains, like Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, Sauron in the Lord of the Rings, or any other classic nemesis—things that are clearly evil, non-negotiable and unacceptable.

This system can be very comfortable for us. It can make us feel good and self-righteous. There’s just one small problem with it: God doesn’t see sin that way. He doesn’t acknowledge or identify with our classification scheme. To God, ALL sins are EQUALLY reprehensible and disgusting.

I can be standing where I am critically judging a fellow brother or sister in Christ because they choose to buy a lottery ticket, drink or go clubbing. At that moment, what I am failing to recognize is that I have equally atrocious sins which I have grown to accept in my own life – be it gluttony, gossiping or harbored anger. Each of us has villainous sins in our life—horrible addictions which we have come to see as cute little pets. What’s even worse is when I despise others for the very things I am myself guilty of doing.

Hmm….this concept reminds me of a Bible verse! In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” Matthew 7:1-5, NIV (emphasis mine).

There’s also this: Some things like gambling are not mentioned or directly prohibited in the Bible. So on what basis have “good Christians” made these activities such a marker for judging others???? Gambling may be unwise and a poor use of the money which God has given me to be a steward of, but so is spending all my money on food or entertainment. Although we see it as such a “bad” thing to do, it’s not listed in the Ten Commandments. But honoring my parents is, and so is coveting. Have I ever dishonored my parents? Definitely. Have I ever been envious of what others have? You betcha I have. If I can’t even fulfill the ten most basic rules God gave men to govern their lives, what business have I to criticize others so strongly for their faults?

This has been a convicting post for me to write. I don’t always choose to remember how serious my sins and faults are. I much prefer keeping my pets. But when I take a step back and remember how God sees my sin—just as evil as the monsters I judge others for—it makes me feel quite ashamed of myself. But at the same time it makes me feel very grateful for Christ’s love and sacrifice for me.

Lord, teach me to recognize the evilness of my own sins. Remind me that I am no better of a person than anyone else. Through Your power, may I choose to say no to my entangling snares and also show others the same grace and mercy which I have received.

HO Week 8 (10/15) - Education

[I'm really late on this one...and I'm not doing what the blog prompt said. Oh well!]

The Intrinsic Good of Thinking

I had my girls read "Is Thinking Good for it's Own Sake" by Clifford Williams from The Life of the Mind. It's a really neat article - it makes you think about thinking :D

Williams opens his article by talking about how Americans tend to require everything they do to fulfill a concrete purpose. It's kind of like a quote from a story about the American Revolution. A French general was training American troops, and he wrote to a friend in his country something along these lines: "You tell your European soldier to do something, and he does. But I have to say to my American soldier, 'this is the reason you are to do it', and then he does it."

So often here we look at college and we expect it to accomplish something - like getting us a better job, more money, etc. This easily leads to grade grubbing--only doing enough in a class to pass it and get a good grade, without caring about the subject matter. Williams argues that this should not be a student's only focus.

Instead, he says, students should see knowledge as intrinsically good - valuable in and of itself, without reference to what it can get you. Williams makes the point that, especially as Christians, we should desire knowledge for it's own sake (because God values it) and not only for the material benefits we get from it. There is beauty in the process of discovering, and we should enjoy that.

HO Week 7 (10/8) - Education

[As you can see, I'm quite late on this one.]

What is Learning?

Learning is the ability to take a new concept and to digest it--to really understand it. Moreover, true learning will also include applying the new knowledge to your own life and to the greater community around you. Learning is also the ability to make connections between what one is currently studying and what one already knows. It is creating one's view of the world - building a system for how things work.

[Brad had us write for a few minutes in class about what our definition of learning was. That's what I wrote. If you want more info, read my girls' posts. They were good :)]

HO Week 6 (10/1) - Education

Are Students Banks or People?

How to best educate students is an interesting question, and one we will be examining for the next couple of weeks. An educator named Paulo Freire wrote a book entitled The Pedagogy of the Oppressed in which he discusses this topic. In his second chapter, he sets forth two methods of educating. I have experienced both during my life.

In my senior year of high school I took Chinese at a community college. Understandably, most of what we students had to do was memorize vocabulary words. This idea of students being passive receivers/memorizers is what Freire refers to as the "banking concept." The teachers are in total control of the situation, and they are often seen as knowing everything about their subject. They make "deposits" of knowledge into the "banks" (students). Students are supposed to meekly accept, swallow, and parrot whatever the teacher says. This method is almost unavoidable in a foreign language class. When it is employed in other classes (history, for example), however, Freire says that it "minimize[s] or annul[s] the students' creative power" (73) and serves to make them less human.

The English 2 honors class I took last semester was in stark contrast to the banking model. Although the professor did sometimes lecture about what we were reading, she mostly encouraged us to discuss what we had noticed in the texts. This is what Freire calls the "problem posing" method of education. This method focuses on "acts of cognition, not transferrals of information," Freire says (79). It also means that the teacher becomes more of a fellow student - someone who can gain just as much from the class as the "real" students do. "Problem posing" forces students to think things through rather than be spoonfed all the answers.

Clearly, the latter method is preferable.

HO Week 5 (9/24) - Calling

What Do My Friends Say?

Last fall I sent a short survey to two of my girlfriends, my mom, and two women who have basically mentored me. I asked them what I was passionate about, what I was good at, and what they could see me doing/being in ten years. Their answers encouraged me, though I found some a bit surprising.

I wasn't surprised by the answers to the first question. All five mentioned my relationship with God as my primary passion, which is most certainly true.

Both of my girlfriends said I am good at listening to other people, which I found encouraging. Three people mentioned my communication skills (particularly writing) and my organizational skills. Both of those are things which I enjoy doing.

It was quite interesting to read the answers to the third question. Four of the people said they could see me as a wife/mother homeschooling my children. This is what I most want to do. I was rather surprised that two of the people said they could see me as a missionary. I wanted to be a missionary when I was little, but I hadn't thought about it in quite a while. Three of the people said they could see me as a teacher - something I hadn't really thought about beyond homeschooling my own children. The more I think about it, though, the more it does seem likely. I wouldn't teach at a public school (because I'm not getting a teaching degree), but I can certainly see myself teaching at a co-op someday. Some other ideas were that I might be an administrative assisstant or be writing articles using my journalism degree (perhaps involved in politics). I would love to do either of those things.

HO Week 4 (9/17) - Calling

My Natural Strengths

In this week's posts, students are to compare their spiritual gifts with their strengths (based on the StrengthsQuest survey). So as a refresher: my top spiritual gifts are Faith, Serving, and Leadership/Administration or Pastoring/Shepherding. My top five strengths (from when I took the test for Gateway last fall) are Belief, Responsibility, Discipline, Intellection, and Connectedness.

Belief obviously ties into Faith. This is one that I hadn't really thought about/recognized in myself until I did these tests. I think it's because my beliefs and faith are such a part of me that I don't think that's unusual. I feel as though all Christians should care that much about their beliefs. The down side to this is that I can tend to be very set in my ways, even in minor things, because I take my beliefs so seriously. Intellection probably goes along with Faith as well. I have strong beliefs, but I want to know why I believe those things as well. I want it to be grounded in reason, not "just because."

Responsibility and Discipline go along with Leadership/Administration and probably with Serving too. An example is the work I did the last two years of high school. I had a class with the same teacher for three years, and after the first year she asked me to be her assistant, probably because of the discipline I had exhibited in class. Ever since then, I have been her administrative assistant of sorts, helping her each summer get things set up for the new school year. This ties together all four of the things listed above - and I love doing it!

When I took the StrengthsQuest, I was most surprised by "Connectedness." I was a little worried about it too, because it sounded almost New Age-ish. I have come to realize that I do look for connections in things though. I feel like this might go along with the Shepherding gift - of wanting to show people that they're not just out on their own, they are part of a bigger plan: God's plan.

HO Week 3 (9/10)

My Spiritual Gifts

[yep, I'm a little late on this one too.]

For the next couple of weeks, we are going to be talking about "calling" (as in vocation and/or spiritual gifts). We are reading Os Guinness' book Rising to the Call, and the students take a spiritual gifts assessment. This post is a response to the second part.

Dr. Gambill, the instructor, provided links to two online gift inventories. One is a bit more charismatic, and the other is designed to help people know where to plug into their church (so it only addresses what they call "Team Gifts"). I took both tests, and I have the results from the one I took last year as a freshman in the class. It's just interesting seeing how the different ones end up with slightly different results.

Last year, my top three gifts were listed as Serving, Giving, and Faith. On the first one this year, it came up with Faith, Helps (basically Serving), and Music (Pastoring was 4th). The second test was Administration, Shepherding (Pastoring), and Serving [this test had a disclaimer that lots of women get Shepherding because it's similar to nurturing instincts].

I basically agree with what these tests came up with. The last test I took had several paragraphs about each of the gifts, including some tendencies and possible pitfalls, and I certainly identified with those! Last year when I took it, I was surprised to see Faith on there...but I have come to realize that is a big part of who I am. Serving is also definitely one of the things I do a lot. I love helping other people in whatever ways I can. I love to Give other people presents to show I care about them. I'm not too surprised about Administration either. I am an organized person who likes to take charge sometimes!

The only one I'm not so sure about is Shepherding. I think the reason I feel uncertain about it is that I feel strongly that women should not have leadership over men. And yet I so often see that I have leadership tendencies! Sometimes I wonder why in the world God would give me leadership gifts and yet make me a woman. [By the way, leadership was 4th on the list from last year, 16th on the first test this year (too low I think), and I think it was basically included in Administration on the second test.] I'm coming to realize that there really are ways where I can stay true to both my belief and my gift. For example, what I'm doing this semester! My mentor group is all girls, and so I feel comfortable guiding and directing them.

[Sorry girls, I know I went way over the word limit on this one!]