so how's teaching been?

teaching at the Seminary has been going well. i feel like i generally have enough time to prepare, am not behind on my grading (though not super fast either), and things are going well in the classroom. classes have been fairly well organized, i have been able to bring up issues of relevance and answer students' questions, and student participation has been really good. i've been disappointed a bit by a class here and there, but i think that's only because i'm trying to put too much into too little time. but that's not that the class isn't good - perhaps the classes with too much info have a bit of a hectic and disorganized feel to them, but that doesn't imply that it isn't good. the problem is that i want great all the time, so i get disappointed. it helps me to laugh at how unrealistic i am being - and remember the good moments.

and so i will give some of the good moments of the week.
- we discussed how the text might make a difference in people's lives during the Jeremiah class. Jeremiah tends to be a bit of a depressing book (a lot of it is made up of Jeremiah talking or showing how deserving of punishment the people of Judah are). The hope, joy, and peace found in the book are mainly the promise of God's presence, which doesn't exactly compare to the super joy and happiness and blessing that much of western culture (and even some forms of Christianity!) argues that we deserve. and yet when people are suffering and life is difficult, the kind of hope, peace, and joy found in Jeremiah are more honest and more comforting.
- we spent time wondering how we can talk about the creation story in a way that makes sense to people, is sensitive to the culture of when it was first heard (which had a different understanding of the universe (a lot more focused on the role of the supernatural) and the people focused more on the purpose of things than the actual material things themselves), and takes the pressure off a need to debate creation vs. evolution. if you look at the stuff repeated in Gen 1 (God's name is repeated 32 times in 31 verses - and is usually followed by an action verb. God's actions are followed by the phrases "it was so, and it was good") and the stuff that is different from the normal pattern (humans being very good, the evening and morning not repeated on the seventh day - which points us to something very important happening then), then you start to get the focus of the creation account.
- a student came up to me after class to talk about a friend of his who is living with them and has been struggling with things that some people i've been living with this past year have been struggling with. and i was able to give him a couple of suggestions of what to do, but more so to listen and encourage him. and i could see how thankful he was to have somebody who understood how overwhelming just loving people can be.

and in all these things, i could see that i've been able to use what i've been learning in the past number of years to be a blessing to others. for which i am deeply thankful - and even if i only do that imperfectly at times, it is still very good.