When the Teacher Returns

I have learned so much by becoming a substitute teacher at the local public schools. One of the things I’ve learned is that there is hope! Some of these kids breathe infinite hopefulness into my spirit and I could fly on the wings of their enthusiasm for life and their confident expectation for the future. The other thing I’ve learned is that there is no way to measure the depth of depravity within the human soul, and in the public high school environment, evil is alive and thriving. (Pray for your child’s teachers!!)

I wish I could explain the incongruity of having this spectrum of behaviors in one classroom environment seven times per day; thirty or so young adults represent the entire gamut of humanity in fifty-minute cycles. What I can tell you for certain is that, in this environment, evil wins…every time. It exhausts the classroom of cheer, playfulness, positivity, opportunity, encouragement, creativity and hope, and leaves in its wake desolation, isolation, and regulation. The entire educational system in our country is built around minimizing the effects of evil in the classroom. Truth.

It could be funny if you didn’t recognize evil for what it really is. For example, a few weeks ago I subbed in an office technology classroom. It’s a large room with work stations built along three of the walls. Computers are assigned to each student, and their screens face out to the room, where at any given moment the teacher can easily see what’s on each one. And yet… and yet there’s always someone playing solitaire like I can’t see them. And there’s always someone on youtube, as if I don’t know the difference between an accounting spreadsheet and a full-color video of a half-naked woman gyrating around a pole. And there’s always one student who sits in front of an office document that never changes – what they’re actually doing for 50 minutes, I do not know. Oh…and then there are the crotch gigglers. Yes, these students “hide” their cell phones in their lap while they text and giggle. As if there is another reason for giggling while looking at their lap. These students are always very sorry when they get busted and they usually apologize as if it really was an accident that they were toggling between a racing game and their Xcel spreadsheet all the while repeatedly looking over their shoulder to see if I was coming. They assure me that they genuinely didn’t know that this would be frowned upon. And unbelievably, they continue on in this behavior the minute I walk away again, and they’re equally very sorry the next time they’re caught.

I wish I could tell you that it’s funny to watch. I wish I could tell you how cute the kids are in their attempts at misdirection. I wish we could watch it together and laugh and call it harmless. But it isn’t funny. It isn’t cute. It isn’t harmless. It’s evil. It’s the evil in every human heart on display without the benefit of learned filters.

There are two applications that scripture demands I make at this juncture. First, just because the teacher is away and we believe that the sub is powerless to lay on us punishment of any merit, does not mean we should take advantage of the opportunity to misbehave. Our detention, our Saturday School, our In School Suspension – yes even our expulsion – may have been deferred, but Paul says in Romans 6 that we are not free to go on sinning so that the grace of Christ may increase. Christian, this is like behaving badly when there is a sub in the classroom, and we are all guilty of it. In every child, in every class, in every attempt to not get caught doing something they know they should not be doing, I see myself. I see my own attempts to work the system, to take advantage of the fact that the teacher is away. I see my own manipulation of truth. I see my own slanted eyes glancing behind me to make sure I’m not about to get caught, ready at any moment to toggle my screen and then lie about my behavior…or apologize as if I completely forgot that my behavior was forbidden, or better yet, justify that it’s not technically a sin, this thing I’m doing, or at least not a very bad one. I see this in myself, and I see it in the church. Christians abusing the grace of Christ… because we can.

The second thing that scripture demands here is a reminder that the teacher is returning. We can choose to abuse our freedom to play while the teacher is away, but I want so desperately instead to be found busy at my work, industriously making progress, without the need for excuses or justifications or apologies (Luke 12). I want His heart to soar with optimism and hope when He sees me behaving as if He were right here with me, standing behind me and approving my work. I do not want to have to constantly be looking over my shoulder because I can hear God coming and I could not be trusted while He was away. So, friend, what will it be for us? How will we respond to the absence of threat, to the freedom of grace? And what will we be doing when the teacher returns?
 

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org