Growth

Thanks for the Reprimand

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves,  as a father the son he delights in.  – Proverbs 3:11-12

In the syllabus I give to each of my classes, there is a section called “student responsibilities.” Under this title,  I remind every individual in my class that they are responsible for the choices that they make, and for accepting the consequences of those choices prior to making their decisions. For example, if you plagiarize in my class, you receive a zero on an assignment and the administration is notified of the violation to the academic honor code. If you miss class, you are unable to earn participation points. Because I tend to be a planner  (and because I’ve been through several semesters of teaching), included in the syllabus is a pretty thorough list of the choices that students might make and what will happen as a result. The reason I do this, and enforce the policies I’ve outlined, isn’t because I am mean. It’s because (as I tell them) I want them to realize that it’s better for them to learn that there are consequences for their actions in the relative safety of school, then when it “really counts” in their career. In other words, I do it because I care about their future and who they become.

I’m reminded that these are the same reasons that God is consistent with His discipline towards His followers.  His Word has clearly given us the directives for life, and just like Adam and Eve, we are without excuse when we choose to not follow the directions. The fact that at times, we suffer consequences for this disobedience is God’s design of bringing us back to Him.  The hope, just like my hope for my students, is that we will recognize the error of our ways and return to make choices that honor Him.

(A quick note – this isn’t to say that all bad things are punishment for our actions. For more on my take on the “problem of evil”, please click here.)

Which brings me to the point of this little excursion, if the purpose of discipline is to bring me back in alignment with God, then when I recognize that I’m experiencing His correction, shouldn’t my response be one of thanks? He could let me continue along my own, forsaken path, but instead, the consequences He allows, prompt me to return to Him? What is more evidence of His grace that even when I rebel, He desires to bring me back into relationship with Him?

Saying thanks when I receive a godly reprimand isn’t an easy thing to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing.

What tips do you have to rightly respond to God’s correction?

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Growth

The Expected Exception

Most of have probably heard the phrase “Life’s not fair.” Generally it’s uttered when we want to levy an accusation of inequity – when we didn’t get something that we thought we rightly should. The reason that generations of mothers have probably uttered these words is that, just like so many things our mother tells us, it’s true. Life isn’t fair. And the quicker we accept this fact, the better off our attitudes will be.

What’s noteworthy to me, though, is that most people want life to be “fair” until fairness obtains them an outcome they don’t like. Let me give you an example. In my class, I currently don’t accept late assignments. When someone turns in an assignment late, and I tell them – “I’m sorry, but you won’t earn any credit for this”, they quickly want me to be “unfair” and accept their assignment contrary to the standards that everyone else has been held to. It’s understandable – after all, who wants to forgo credit on an assignment just because they missed the deadline? – but it certainly wouldn’t be “fair” to give out credit. It would be patently unfair to all the other students who had to turn the paper in by the due date in order to earn a grade.

It’s not just college students who think like this though. How many of us hope and pray that the “crazy” driver gets a ticket, until that crazy driver is us? When we’re talking to the police officer, we’re presenting our case for why we should be the exception to the rule. In fact, in our pride, we often expect it. (And we degradate the police if they are so ludicrous as to not conform to our new-found sense of “fairness.”) We expect to be the exception, but we sure hope everyone is consistent with the standards when it means someone else might benefit.

The wonderful thing about God, though, is that He didn’t give us what we deserve. In the penultimate case of unfairness, the perfect Christ died for sinners, so that sinners would have His perfection counted towards them. Maybe if we appreciated this a little more, we wouldn’t be so concerned with the misgivings that transpire on Earth. And maybe, in recognizing how grossly unfair this was, we’d be more than content to accept the outcome when we don’t receive the exception we’re expecting.

How do you deal with the fact that life’s unfair? 

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