God is Not Boring – Let’s not be Either!
A frequent complaint among students is that school, or at least a particular subject in school, is boring. I have heard these words in some fashion from the mouths of my own children on some occasions and honestly, it wounds me… because I love learning. In fact, I’ve always loved learning. I even love learning hard things, which is good since I have frequently had to learn things the hard way. I once heard someone say, “the joy is in the knowing…” and I think there is some truth to that, at least in my life. And although there is much less joy for me in say… a math lesson, when I watch our Upper School Math Lead Denise Story talk about math, I begin to understand what the word “gifted”really means. Mrs. Story brings actual happiness to a subject that is oftentimes considered tedious at best and the students at Gramercy are better for having studied underneath her.
Personally, I am convinced that the defining quality of a great teacher is a sincere love for the subject or subjects he or she teaches. A teacher who is passionate about what they teach brings an enthusiasm to the classroom that is both infectious and inspiring, even if the subject is not a student’s favorite. Love so often compels us toward greater creativity and greater competency.
In God is Not Boring John Piper writes, “the supremacy of God in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing world are observed truly, analyzed duly, and communicated boringly… we must imagine ways to say truth for what it really is. And it is not boring.” Oh, how I long for our students to understand this stunning fact! God and His Word and His world and His will are NOT boring. In fact, He is infinitely more interesting than anything I have ever encountered. What’s more, this same intriguing God made language and art and music and science and history and yes, even math!
The point of education and most certainly the point of Christian education is to infuse the minds of students with a love of learning founded on the love they have for an inexhaustible, fascinating, brilliant, beautiful, mysterious God Who created them to live explosive lives of truth and beauty and grace in a broken, desperate world.
Piper goes on to say, “O, how the world needs God-besotted minds that can say the great things of God and sing the great things of God and play the great things of God in ways that have never been said or sung or played before,” and if we at Gramercy can use band and Bible, English and Physical Education, Calculus and Computer Science to launch creative, competent and Christlike men and women into this world, then our job will be well-done indeed.
God is not boring! Let’s not be either!