Knowing our natural style of learning is a good aspect of self-knowledge helpful in learning. Another aspect of self-knowledge important in learning is being aware of what we bring to the table. The academic discipline of Education (especially religious education) is broken up into two camps. One asks, “how do we teach children?” the other asks “how do we teach an adult?” The distinction is a result of adults coming to learning with their bags packed. Adults have already by the natural course of living acquired a perspective through which they process information. This perspective is called often called a worldview. We learn a worldview before we are even old enough to drive. Our gender, culture, family and experience have a role in this life education. The view of life and beliefs by which we see life can alter how we learn. for example: An English professor wrote the words, "A woman without her man is nothing" on the blackboard and directed the students to punctuate it correctly. The men wrote: "A woman, without her man, is nothing." The women wrote: "A woman: without her, man is nothing." We all see things differently, not just men and women but all people have a prospective by which we process information.
D. A. Carson uses an amusing analogy to remind us people are not clean slates, "They are not empty hard drives waiting for us to download our Christian files onto them. Rather, they have inevitably developed an array of alternative worldviews. They are hard drives full of many other files that collectively constitute various non-Christian frames of reference." This is why; we must not assume that all learners are empty container or blank slates. No adult naturally has the conceptual framework for understanding Scripture. As adults, we all come to the bible, sermons, conversations, with our bags packed. The fact that we come with our bags packed informs us that all people come to learning with ideas, definitions and ways of thinking that can help or hinder the learning process.
Jesus had a method for teaching adults who had there bags packed. His teachings is full of a deconstruct and construct method. He understood his hears brought with them more than just some cornbread and cat fish, when they came to hear the young - table flipping, miracle making, maybe messiah -hipster Rabbi. They brought with them the ideas and definitions they grew up with.
Many of Jesus' sayings, like those in Matthew 5:39-41, are not natural ways of being human. They instead turn people's world-views upside down, like G.K. Chesterton's description of Saint Francis of Assisi's worldview. "He saw as one standing on his head, as it were, so that the meaning of everything in the world was changed. Except for the grace of God, the buildings would fall down to the sky!" Jesus parables and sermons show this method most clearly. Take the parable of the prodigal sons. Yes sons, both of them. The runway son spoke to the rebellious heart, the older brother in the story would have spoke to the prideful and religious heart, both shown grace by the father. Jesus was deconstructing the twisted understanding of God's grace of both groups. Jesus aimed the crosshairs at the slavish shame in one and self-righteous pride in the other that twisted the grace of God into a work for approval (merit) mentality in both. Such parables functioned as a call to response, calling all people to the Father God who loves all and givers grace to the humble.
Another example is the structure of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5 through 7). It is the first direct teaching of Jesus to his newly called disciples and the crowds that followed him. Jesus' blueprint for Kingdome living taught to those living in a religious system we could call "kingdom perverted". A system built by the Pharisees and Seduces, heavily with an external and political focus, ripe with ritualism, legalism, and little view given to the inner life of the heart. Such a religious focus on external levels the doors of the heart open to religious pride, false senses of entitlement, presumptuous privilege, and, Radical racism. Read the sermon through thinking of the Hearers as people in slaved and beet down by such a system. The organization of the sermon is two-fold. 1) To deconstruct the misinterpretation of the Plan of God and intent of the Law by the Pharisees. Jesus had to deconstruct such teachings for it had control of the whole of their religious consciousness 2) To construct a the foundation for a worldview built on his teachings and life.
Unpacking our bags
When we speak of reading, and learning, in a Christian context we have to begin at repentance. It is not thought of as a pleasant concept. Most people think groveling, pleading and punishment when they think of repentance. Biblically speaking, repentance is one of the most positive words in the Christian dictionary and why would it not be it refers to turning from a destructive path and entering the rolling countryside of God's abundant life. But repent means more than just praying the sinner's prayer, it is an essential part of the Christian lifestyle. Jesus described repentance as a comprehensive process involving the whole person. Of the three Greek words used in the gospel, one emphasizes the affective element of knowing and feeling your wrong, grieving for your evil course of life, metamelomai, (Matt. 12:29-32). A second speaks of a change in the direction of life, one goal being substituted for another, epistrephomai; Matt. 13:15 (and parallels); Luke 17;4, 22:32. The third Greek word used in the gospel for repent denotes an entire mental attitude in which you take God and his word seriously, metanoeo, (Matt. 12:41, Luke 11:32; 15:7, 10)
It is this thrird that is most important to understand the repentance reading connection. When we come to the bible we should let it read us. Scripture has the power to unpack your mental bags. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Heb 4:12-13) Being a learner means being humble enough to be taught and strong enough to own up to bad beliefs that need changing and bad habits that need flipping. We should read to repent. When I first became a Christian I learned a definition of repentance that may help at this point.
Repentance is defining my life by God's terms.
In the new life which follows initial repentance the absolute supremacy of God is the controlling principle of the mind and heart. We no longer let ego and pride run ruff short over our life. We live a life of turning. Tunring from sin and bad definitions, trunting to God and truth through the primary means of reading and learning the truth. We turn from internet answers to eternal truth, from fad cures to hope insured, from idolity to worship, from keeping ourselves to being kept, from true ignorance to sacred knowledge, from passive follower to passionate learner, and from operating by our definitions to defining life by God's word.
Letting scripture inform the definitions by which you understand the world around you is a blessing. You slowly begin to see the world with God at the Center. You enjoy the "fat of the Land" and good gifts all around and respond with a happy "thanks!" You experience, a mountains majesty and unlike the atheist you have someone to say 'thanks you" too.
Defining your life by God's terms
Reading the bible is one means of transforming our worldview. As we read scripture, epically the gospels, it begins to read us. We let the bible deconstruct the way we think. Jesus method works on us as we read of it working on others. A life style of repentance is important if you want to be a learner. When it comes to Christian's reading the bible it is more than a truism to state, people that repent well - learn well! People don't learn if they will not change their minds. First, prepare your heart - then read. Second let scripture define how you understand the world around you. Define life by God's terms. Learn to repent well and the bible will always be a book of answers for all of life. If ask what makes a good learner? Our Hearts should respond, let me ask Jesus?
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