calvin in my classroom: consequence

To quote D. A. Carson, "Both God's love and God's wrath are racheted up in the move from the Old Testament to the New." ("God's Love and God's Wrath," Bibliotheca Sacra, 1999)  In the Old Testament, God's wrath manifests in worldly ways; in the New Testament, God's wrath manifests itself in Christ's teachings on Hell.  If in the Old Testament God seems more wrathful to us, it's because we either don't believe in or don't understand Hell.

~ Dane Ortlund, 13.Aug.11

Economics teaches the idea of the "rational man," who weighs options and always chooses the one in his best interest.  I have never seen this man in my classroom.  He's not even on my roster.

Let me give you an example.  My students are not allowed to have their cell phones out during class; when I explain this, many students are shocked to discover that it is not simply an extension of their hand and mind.  As students invariably struggle to cope with their concept of the world being so flipped, testing to see if this is real life, they are given a harsh pinch to confirm: any cell phone that is out is to be given to  the principal, and only returned when a parent comes up to school to retrieve it.  Within this context, I often try to play "good cop" and give students a choice, "give me your phone now (solving the problem), or give it to the principal later (after written referral).  If you give it to me now, you can come get it at the end of the day."  Easy choice, right?  Except that having to give the phone to the teacher feels much more real because it's tangible and immediate, and many students will refuse because they have no concept of administrative referral/suspension.  

I fear that I often view God the same way that my students view our administration.  I have no concept of the wrathfulness of the New Testament - of the hell Christ preached - or I would not think that the Old Testament seemed so much more harsh.  It's all about tangibility.  See, the "rational man" concept assumes that man is governed by rationality; in reality, I'd suggest that man is actually governed by self.  Thus, instead of acting based on what makes the most sense, we act based on what we can conceive or imagine. We need Christ, in his grace, to take away the blindness that limits us to our own experience and imagination.  Only he can soften our hearts to the intervention he's provided so that we don't face the consequences of the system.

And this is not simply a spiritual problem.  Nicholas Nassim Taleb identifies the same problem in his work: we have great difficulty thinking outside our pre-existing categories (The Bed of Proscrustes) and therefore we are Fooled by Randomness.