Those of you who know me, know that I have been working in Christian education for the last three years.  While I worked in that atmosphere, I learned many important lessons about Christ, His character, and who I am in Him.  I’m still working through many of my feelings about this season in my life, but I want to make it clear that this post is not meant to “bash” the school I worked at.  It is not meant to “bash” certain people who worked there, or Christian education as a whole.  These are lessons that I’m sorting through, and I pray writing this is helping me to process and apply these lessons.  I may not always feel the way I do today.  God has a way of refining me little by little and not all at once.  I’m sure as time passes, I’ll grow to see the big picture and what God was doing during this time.  I pray that the lessons I’m going to share with you in my next four blogs are helpful and that they bless you.  I am being very careful not to attack anyone, but because you need to understand where I have been the last three years in order to understand these lessons, I am going to list examples from my experience.  I will not be giving any names, and the examples I’m listing are pretty benign, meaning they are not representative of the worst situations that I experienced.   They are actually representative of the pettiest things that happened.  I’m doing this deliberately not only so that you can see simple examples, but also to protect those who were involved.  Some of these examples have a huge back-story that I’m not going to explain.  It is not the purpose of this blog to vent or to gain approval of my actions or feelings.  I hope this makes sense.  Additionally, I pray that God leads my hands as I write.  I pray that this post is a blessing and not a hindrance to any person’s faith.

But, I want to be clear, I am in no way advocating disavowing the Law.  Romans 6: 1-2 says, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”  If we are following Christ on this great adventure that is life, we cannot continue to live in sin.  He won’t let us.  Although He didn’t follow the “rules,” he never sinned.  That is the life He’s calling us into.  It is not okay to break the law because we don’t agree with it.  Rather, if our focus is on Christ, and not on the law, we will live in His grace.  We will grow in our faith.  And, we will not be drawn into sin.

1.     Dancing is evil.  I taught 7^th through 12^th grade.  I didn’t have very many students, but the students I did have mentioned one of the things they’d miss most about going to public high school was a prom.  We didn’t have organized sports or academic activities either;  the school  was primarily focused on their education.  So, after visiting with some of the parents about it, I visited with the other teachers.  The response from them was adamant.  Dancing, and public dances are all evil.  They were shocked I would consider it.  Truth be told, I thought that if the parent organization wanted to put together a banquet for the students, I was all for it.  However, I didn’t have an issue with a dance.  If it’s well supervised and good music was played, then I thought it might even be a blessing.

3.     Showing grace is too much to ask.  One of my students, during a mentoring session with younger kids, mentioned that she was often frustrated with her father–a common tween to teen feeling.  I was confronted by a teacher about the exchange.  The teacher conceded that the student wasn’t making fun of her dad, or even being truly disrespectful, but that she didn’t think that it was good for her to be disparaging her relationship with her father in front of younger students.  She went on to insist that my student not be allowed to mentor any more because of the comment she made.  I told her I thought that was a little too strong of a response.  I assured her that I would talk to the student about being respectful to her elders, whether she’s getting along with them or not—which I did.  However, the teacher in question didn’t let it go.  I found myself discussing it with her several more times.  She wanted the young lady removed from the mentoring program and even verbally attacked the student’s Christian character when I didn’t bend to her will.

Here’s the crux–scripture can back each of these examples up.  Dancing, although it’s done in the Bible by many of God’s people, can be viewed as lewd behavior.  At times it really is a sin; I agree with that.  However, that is not to say that what these students were asking for was sinful.  Often legalistic people use the argument that we must, “avoid the appearance of sin,” as an excuse to ban anything they are uncomfortable with.  That is also the excuse to ban music—Christian or not.  Finally, it’s obvious what scriptural example was used in the last example:  “Honor your father and mother.”  However, what each of these examples is missing is Christ.  Jesus never said that it was a sin to dance.  In fact, King David, was known for his dancing and he was called “a man after my own heart,” by God.  Additionally, I truly doubt that Jesus would disparage Jamie Grace’s (an awesome new Christian musician) music because it sounds like songs that are on secular radio.  The words don’t sound anything like secular radio.  “Lord I love it when You hold me…” were the lyrics to the chorus.  Finally, God calls us to show grace and mercy to all people—even ones who make mistakes.

What legalism is at its core is a faith that is built on works and not grace.  People who become legalistic in their day-to-day walk have forgotten that they are depraved sinners who are nothing without Christ.  They have replaced a daily search for Christ with a pride that they know best, and a self-righteousness built from the laws they follow.  The truth is, it’s easier to live like that, than to live like Christ.  We are called to take up our cross (a instrument of execution) and follow Him.  That’s not easy. Not at all.  In Corinthians Paul describes people who are living this lifestyle.  He says, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?”  (I Corinthians 3:1-3)  We humans want to be in control.  We don’t like feeling weak.  We don’t like to admit we don’t know the answers and that the answers aren’t always easy.  Legalists believe they know the answers.  They live in a world where everything is black and white, and there are no shades of grey.  Following their rules gives them control.  So if we are living in legalism, we are not growing.  God wants to offer us steak, but we’re stuck drinking the milk of babies.

Personally, I prefer steak.

Over the next month I’ll be expounding on the dangers of legalism.  I hope these bless you, challenge you, and make you grow.  The time I spent in living in legalism has definitely done that to me.

Also, if you haven’t liked my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/stayingalert) please do so.  I am starting a daily bible study tomorrow to further challenge me, and to, hopefully, bless you.

Staying Alert in Christ,

Megan