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Thought for the Week, April 18

Near the end of every semester, students are relentlessly tested,
examined, evaluated, (and exhausted!) We spare no effort or expense to weigh,
measure, calculate and assess their achievement (or lack of it.) We separate,
segregate, divide (and conquer) our kids according to the results of these grades
and test scores. We moderns convince ourselves that this somehow matters
decisively.
But beneath all this intense scrutiny, it seems to me, rests a lie that
reflects our unquestioned conviction, rarely stated aloud, that in the human
work of living well, only the intelligent and academically competent may
succeed. It is wholly unbiblical, but we believe it anyway.
Recently I came across a few lines by a mostly-forgotten philosopher of
the last century, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. Here's what he wrote: The human
person "is equipped with two great forces - hope and faith - compared to which
his intelligence is a minor matter. If you have faith, you will live forward
in spite of disappointment. If you have hope, you will let nothing die that
once proved worthwhile."
Intelligence can resolve complex issues and solve difficult problems.
Our world needs it. The church needs it. But if we want our children to
develop a great capacity to live courageously for God, we may be missing the mark
when we take their carefully identified skill sets, test scores, and
academic performances too seriously. Intelligence alone is no match for the depth of
suffering, or the depth of evil that our students will encounter in this
world, especially if we intend them to see it whole, and to win it for Jesus
Christ.
No one gives final examinations in the virtues. And it is a good thing
that we cannot reduce them to achievable "benchmarks." But it might be wise,
as the school year comes to a close, to remember that God really does look
on, and into, the heart, where faith and hope and, yes, love, are the real
predictors of a Christian life well-lived.