What’s the focus?

I was required to take a long list of education classes as a beginning teacher. Many of the professors in the College of Education had written their own books about how hopeless education is in America based on research that indicated that it was unlikely to get any better. I was working with a group of teachers who denied the research and did a good job regardless of the professors’ rhetoric. Professors spoke words, but the teachers reached lives. It was fundamentally different.

I travelled with another teacher I will call G. Germane to take classes toward certification. I was an idealistic student and wanted to grasp every bit of understanding I could get. My questions were typically based on how to apply information to real life situations in the classroom. I found that I was particularly grievous to one teacher who always cut me off curtly and showed me that I was out of place. My friend, Germane, told me what was wrong. He said, “The class is not about the subject, but about the teacher. Your questions dim the spotlight of his rhetoric to focus on the content and function. Audience members are there to applaud, not to question the actor.” I was completely out of phase with the focus of what was happening. I was there for function and the professor was there for performance and publicity.

It is necessary to guard against corrupt people and corrupt teaching. The core focus is the proving ground. Cults become all powerful when the cult leader becomes the gatekeeper to heaven and heavenly rewards (leader or person focus). My professor was that way, but only to a small degree. He only gave grades and sarcastic disdain. Most students cooperated with his vanity as grades required it. Sadly, I must admit and observe that anyone who has a self worth deficiency has sacrificed some level of truth or honor to get approval. The desire to have oneself put on a pedestal for admiration or see oneself in power over others shifts God from the throne. It is one of the fastest ways to see through a false teaching.

Check this idea out. Read the New Testament. Who saw Jesus for who He really was and who didn’t? The people competing with God for control and admiration missed Him completely. The kind of people Jesus describes in Matthew 5 completely see Jesus. Learning to discern the heart of a matter can reveal form or function, God or man, truth or scam. Follow the admiration, power, money trail to find the true focus. Pray for discernment. Choose Jesus.