Think Time

How hard is it to think? Honestly. Samuel Johnson answers this question with, “Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor, but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.” How true that is! Teaching 10^th and 11^th grade English gives me special insight into this “great aversion to intellectual labor.” Students have mastered not the skill of thinking but the technique of aversion. Is it any wonder that when a teacher asks a question the students stare back blankly?

The fact is, I am doing my students a major disservice if I allow my sophomores and juniors to think that blank stares and ‘I don’t knows’ are acceptable and a quick fix to a potentially draining exercise. I am preparing them for embarrassment and failure in the future if I choose to protect my own self-esteem instead of holding them accountable to the question.

See that is what it boils down to…training students to think on their own is really uncomfortable for me. I equate the wait time it takes for them to formulate answers to my success as a teacher. It is just as risky for me to wait as it is for them to answer. The fact is…they can answer. Students CAN think. It takes time and work – so why wouldn’t they try to avoid the exercise?

We as believers are even more susceptible to this…especially with our children and youth ministries. What’s ironic is that it seems like teenagers want to think and question Biblical principles…at church. However, in these cases, we would rather our students not think. In fact, we tend to panic anytime a teenager questions anything related to the Bible. Why? Again, we are living in fear. What if, as a result of questioning, the teenager decides to discard his/her belief system? That’s a tough one. Remember two things: truth is never threatened by a question and God is sovereign. Better the teenager question within the safe-guards of the church and amongst other believers than to blindly accept everything he/she hears and then question later when forced to think by unbelieving college professors and/or business executives. You catch my drift?

I play both roles – teacher and youth leader. As an English teacher, it is my responsibility to get them to think. I often times encourage my students to question certain truths such as the Resurrection and Creationism…why? Because if I don’t get them to question and search for the answers, then someone else will…and that someone else may steer them in directions opposite God’s Word. However, as a youth leader, I panic when my students start to question. It is almost as if I have dual personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (nice English analogy, huh?).

So what should I do? Struggle to allow them to struggle. I hope to get my students (classroom and youth ministry) to think, but also to draw them back to Biblical principles by what I say and do.

I gag when my sophomores and juniors give me ‘Sunday school’ answers at school. But are we teaching them any differently at church? Am I favoring Sunday school answers in my small group because I am afraid let them battle?

Perhaps it is time I stop defending God’s Word out of fear and confidently begin to practically allow His Word to speak for itself through my actions and my words.