While their fears might have been
misdirected, they were not totally unfounded. Their experience had caused them
to observe undesirable transformation in a few individuals who “went off to
Bible college.” Nevertheless, they were mistaken in their conclusion that it
was education that was the source of the ruin of these young preachers. Indeed,
had they considered it carefully, they would have found that the process of
education is a biblical practice that can be good for the soul. Israel was
instructed to “learn” the ordinances handed down through Moses (Deuteronomy
5:1). The wise obtain instruction and
understanding (Proverbs 1:5; 4:7;
23:23). Jesus called his disciples to “learn” from him (Matthew 11:29). Paul
indicated that even charismatic gifts can be useful in learning (1 Corinthians 14:31). In fact, it would seem that the process
of learning, or education, is indispensable in discerning and responding to the
call of God. Education as a practice can enable people to hear God in distinct
ways. Furthermore, with the Spirit’s presence and power, the process can form
the kind of person who lives out that call.
What Is the Call of God?
When we speak of God’s call, we are
referring to the call to follow Jesus as issued to people in real situations.
To live out that call is to answer the question of how to follow Jesus in the
life in which one lives. There is more in mind here than particular careers.
Rather, God’s call to a life in Christ takes into account one’s history,
family, strengths, and so forth. Circumstances in life will change, thereby
necessitating a constant evaluation on how one fulfills the call to follow
Jesus. Living out the call of God within the given factors of one’s life will
direct ways that calling is fulfilled. Education is an essential practice to
discerning and responding to that voice.
Education as a Christian
Practice
The idea of Christian practices has
come to the forefront of discipleship discussions in the past two decades. The
ancient wisdom of Scriptures and tradition have been mined again in order to
make ordinary things ways in which God can be experienced and worshiped and
obeyed. This movement recognizes the need to lay hold of God in the concrete
experiences of life. Thus, scholars like Craig Dykstra and Dorothy Bass have
proposed the recovery of Christian practices as “things Christian people do together over time in response to and in the
light of God’s active presence for the life of the world in Christ Jesus.”[1] Education can be a Christian
practice. The disciplines of education that bring about the event of learning engage
the learner and develop at least three specific traits useful in discerning and
responding to the call of God.
Concentrating the Mind
The practices associated with
education develop within the willing learner a concentration of mind that is
essential to hearing the call of God. The historian Pierre Hadot points out
that the ancients understood that just as athletics have certain formative
effects upon the body, so philosophical exercises strengthen the mind: “That
is, philosophy should discipline the mind, turn it away from damaging habits,
cure it of weaknesses, perfect it, focus it on its proper ends, transform the
personality and enlighten the eyes of the soul.”[2]
As the mind becomes concentrated
through the acts of learning, it is also disciplined to be able to give
significant attention. We can see this in youngsters as they grow and learn.
The practice of listening to reading and then reading for themselves, for
example, disciplines the mind to focus and be present to a particular issue.
This increased capacity to give
attention is essential in living out one’s calling. Simone Weil, a Christian
philosopher, reminds us that “Prayer consists of attention. It is the
orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable towards God.”[3] She goes on to point out
that this attention is developed through “school exercises” which need not be
religious. It could be something as mundane as a geometry problem. Every
exercise becomes “a sacrament” wherein the learner is enabled to “suspend
thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrated by the object….
In every school exercise there is a special way of waiting upon truth, setting
our hearts upon it, yet not allowing ourselves to go out in search of it.”[4]
This
state of attentive openness is enjoined in the Scriptures: “Guard your steps as
you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the
sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty
in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God.
For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few”
(Ecclesiastes 5:1-3, NASU). The practices involved in education discipline the
mind to negate distraction and offer attentiveness. This state of attentiveness
amounts to being present to the God who is present to us. In that presence we are
able to hear when he speaks. We are able to follow in our calling for we have
been receptive to the voice that calls.
Concentrating the mind also involves
ordering the intellect. This ordering is a necessary part of the educational process.
Take the educational practice of research for example. Research by its very
nature requires order, for it requires method. Following the order of research
trains the mind to operate in an ordered manner. Throughout this process we
learn to practice reason. Dallas Willard defines “reason” as “the capacity to
apprehend truth itself, as truth is displayed in any true thought, judgment or
statement. That capacity involves, among other things, the capacity to grasp
logical relations and thereby appreciate evidence for truth.”[5]
The Scripture affirms this ordered
way of thinking. James writes that the heavenly wisdom needed within the
community is, among other qualities, “reasonable” (James 3:17, NASU). This is
contrasted with earthly and demonic wisdom which produces “disorder” (James
3:16). Bringing this order to the mind enables one to perceive the truth and
thereby recognize the call of God.
Developing Discernment
Closely related to the effects of
the concentrated mind, is the ability to discern what is true and thereby
recognize God’s call. Aristotle said, “The man who has been educated in a
subject is a good judge of that subject, and the man who has received an all-round
education is a good judge in general.”[6] While we obviously connect
discernment with judging between true and false, it also includes the ability
to determine what is relevant and necessary. Once again, this ability is
necessary in the process of research. In any inquiry, all data is not
necessary. All data is not true. Developing discernment is essential. We ask
questions like, “Does this source apply to my question? Is this source
reliable? How have I arrived at the conclusions to those questions?”
This faculty of discernment can
enable us to identify the presence and word of God in the midst of the world.
The rigorous practices of reading, analyzing, testing, dialoging, and reasoning
all lend themselves to the development of the ability of discernment necessary
to hear the voice of God. When this discernment is practiced in step with the
Spirit, life experiences can become full of meaning and beauty. We are able to
recognize what Os Guinness calls the “splendor of the ordinary.”[7] The abilities sharpened by
practice in the academy are turned upon the world with the intent of seeing and
hearing God and giving no quarter to the false and superfluous. In such a
practice, calling can be readily recognized, for “Earth’s crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his
shoes….”[8] The Spirit can use the
educational process to develop people who see.
Hearing Others
“Knowledge puffeth up” (1
Corinthians 8:1). This was one of the warning verses wielded by some well-meaning
elders of my younger years. Their concern was that too much knowledge can ruin
a person by making them intolerably arrogant. This statement of Paul’s was used
without regard to the apostle’s intent or its context. Their experiences,
however, had brought them in contact with knowledgeable people who refused to
listen. Of course, the world is full of ignorant folks who are just as
conceited. Simply put, it is a lack of humility (an equal opportunity vice!), a
refusal to accept that another has a voice worthy of being heard. The
educational process, when submitted to, has the ability to nurture humility by
training the learner to listen to others.
Education, whether at school, at
home, or in cyberspace, necessarily takes place in community. The student must
have a teacher. The relationship of disciple and master must be developed in
order for knowledge to be transferred and education to occur. An illustrative
though currently infrequent practice of this is reading aloud. Neil Holm
contends that this practice in education strengthens community and fosters the
“development of good listening skills that are the foundation of
other-directedness. We do not listen well to each other, because we have become
so self-oriented. We cannot be truly other-oriented unless we listen deeply,
are deeply aware of others and are truly present to them.”[9] We can add to this the
practices of listening to a teacher, to the author of a text, or to our peers
in dialog. The choice to listen is an admission that one does not possess all
knowledge and may, indeed, be wrong at some points. It is an indication of openness
to persuasion, of presence, and of a willingness to look for the truth.
The cultivation of this humility
develops people who are “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger” (James
1:19, NASU). This humility readies us to hear God’s call as it comes through
the community. Perhaps it will be a call from leadership regarding a need or
the face of a beggar on the street or the simple innocently piercing question
of a child. Regardless of the medium, the practice of listening to learn will
enable one to hear God’s call.
Education as Formation
Thus far, we have discussed
education as a practice and, where relevant, touched upon specific practices
within education. The aim of our discussion has been to demonstrate that these
practices can develop individuals who are able to hear the call of God. The
attentive person is present to hear from the other and can employ reason with
others to discern the voice of God. When this process is brought under the
Spirit’s presence and guidance, it also has a formative effect, which is part
of answering God’s call.
The process of education under the
power of the Holy Spirit aids in spiritual formation enabling the learner to
hear and respond to the call of God. We have seen a few ways in which
educational practices can specifically aid in that ability to hear. Now we turn
to see how the process as a whole can aid the learner to respond.
The Whole Person
Thus far we have observed some
effects of education upon the intellect. However, it would be mistaken to
assume that only the cognitive functions of the person are in view. Recent
advances in science are showing us what many ancient societies and the Scriptures
have known all along: learning involves the whole person—mind, heart, and body.
Along with the acquisition of knowledge and development of reason, affections
are shaped and practices acquired. Thus, a godly education accomplishes three
things in the student: 1) directs his or her affections to truth, beauty, and
holiness; 2) helps him or her as well to understand those things; and 3) helps
him or her practice them. In this way, the learner is developed into one whose
entire being is poised to respond to the call of God.
The
belief of those who seek to honor Christ in the practice of education is that
what we love we will attend unto, and what we attend unto we will become.
However, we first attend unto it in our ignorance. We are not yet what we look
upon. We do not know what we seek to understand. We are faceless seeking
answers. Yet the process of truly seeking under the Spirit’s guidance can lead
us to eventually see the answers most desired. We hear the voice of God calling
and turn to see His glory—whether that be illumined in a beautiful equation, provoking
novel, or biblical passage. In gazing upon His glory we are led to see the
fount of that glory in Christ and then we are “transformed into the same image
from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NASU). And in time, through all this
process as we discern and respond the call of God, we are also formed. Then
when our faces are like his face, we have the answer we most seek because, as
C. S. Lewis wrote, “before [his] face questions die away. What other answer
would suffice?”[10]
Conclusion
Working with students at a Christian
college, I am well aware of the angst and mystique that surround the idea of
“the call of God.” In the Pentecostal tradition, it seems that everyone either
wants to see a burning bush or they fear it. The former want the grand
experience that will forever direct their lives eradicating all doubt. The
latter fear the fire will consume them as it might direct them to something
they dread. However, relatively few of them ever have a marked dramatic
encounter that forever settles the direction of their lives into some
particular career. Rather, if they submit to the process of education, they
usually grow and come to discern the call of God in the very ways described in
this article. They become more present to God, more discerning in their
judgments, and more ready to listen. The Spirit unceasingly works in the processes
of their education to shape their habits, their speech, and their tastes. They
come to love more what they should love. Most of all, they become more like the
One they love. And that is fulfilling the call.
Bibliography
Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics.
Translated by W. D. Ross. Digital edition, n.d.
Bass,
Dorothy C., ed. Practicing Our Faith: a Way of Life for a Searching People.
2nd ed. The Practices of Faith Series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010.
Browning,
Elizabeth Barrett. Aurora Leigh. Edited by Kerry McSweeney. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1998.
Guinness,
Os. The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life.
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003.
Holm,
Neil. “Classroom Formation & Spiritual Awareness Pedagogy Based on
Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.” Journal of Education & Christian Belief
12, no. 2 (September 1, 2008): 159–175.
Lewis,
C. S. Till We Have Faces; a Myth Retold. Kindle edition. New York:
Harcourt, Brace, 1957.
Placher,
William C., ed. Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation.
Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2005.
Sullivan,
John. “From Formation to the Frontiers: The Dialectic of Christian Education.” Journal
of Education & Christian Belief 7, no. 1 (March 1, 2003): 7–21.
Willard,
Dallas. “How Reason Can Survive the Modern University: The Moral Foundations of
Reality.” Accessed July 11, 2013. http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=33.
[1] Dorothy C. Bass, ed., Practicing Our
Faith: a Way of Life for a Searching People, 2nd ed, The Practices of Faith
Series (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 5.
[2] John Sullivan, “From Formation to the
Frontiers: The Dialectic of Christian Education,” Journal of Education &
Christian Belief 7, no. 1 (March 1, 2003): 15.
[3] William C. Placher, ed., Callings:
Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B.
Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2005).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Dallas Willard, “How Reason Can Survive
the Modern University: The Moral Foundations of Reality,” accessed July 11,
2013, http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=33.
[6] Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics,
trans. W. D. Ross, Digital edition, n.d., I.3.
[7] Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and
Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
2003), 186.
[8] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora
Leigh, ed. Kerry McSweeney (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 246.
[9] Neil Holm, “Classroom Formation &
Spiritual Awareness Pedagogy Based on Bonhoeffer’s Life Together,” Journal
of Education & Christian Belief 12, no. 2 (September 1, 2008): 164.
[10] C. S Lewis, Till We Have Faces; a
Myth Retold., Kindle edition (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1957), 308.
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