God gives us a mind so we can find and glorify Him.  It’s why we go to school. See the column below, and remember Solomon ... Blessings, Bob

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Labels: 1 John 4:8, 1 Kings 3:9-12, ask of me anything, economics, Genesis 1-2, image of God, John 14:13, Mission Christian Academy, school, Solomon, Trinity

Spirituality Column #857

April 18, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Creative License, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning mind.” God to Solomon, 1 Kings 3:12

Today, I’m burying the lede (newspaper talk for “main idea”); so hang with me.

Solomon is famous for asking God for wisdom, though depending on which translation of the Bible one reads, Solomon asks God (1 Kings 3:9) either to “give your servant an understanding mind” (ESV) or an “understanding heart (KJV, NIV, etc.).

What the obedient and young King Solomon wanted, and what God understood and provided, was the wisdom and means Solomon knew he needed to govern God’s people in a way glorifying to God and beneficial to them; he loved God and others.  It is wise to understand that “mind” and “heart” – synonymous – are God’s unique gifts to humanity.  Developing them in service and love to God and others is our holy calling.

Consider Genesis 1 and 2, where God gives this gift of “a discerning mind/heart” to Adam and Eve as they – and we – are created in God’s image. Interestingly it is phrased thusly in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.  And let them have dominion over [all other animals].”  Let’s take a few notes.

Note 1: “us, our, and our” – God’s plural self-reference appears three times in the first sentence.  This denotes God exists as a relationship, which we now know as “Father, Son, Spirit.”  That is why Jesus’s apostle John can repeatedly write, “God is love,” (1 John 4:8).  God is a divine, eternal relationship – the Trinity – and love must be shared to be love. God is generous; our image both reflects and is God’s love, made to freely join that relationship.  We call that relationship the Kingdom of God,

Note 2: “And let them” – again in the plural, tells us “they,” i.e., God, intended “persons,” not just Adam.  “Male and female he made them,” says Genesis 1:27.

Note 3: “In His own image he created him,” also Genesis 1:27. Maybe this phrase is singular because God makes us one at a time?  Just a guess.  But we humans are unique in God’s Creation as the image of God, imago dei.  We can think and we can be creative. God made us that way; creativity separates us from beasts.

Moving on, Jesus at the Last Supper declares to the Disciples, “ask me for anything in my name and I will do it” (John 14:13). Most folks reflexively ask to be (or their loved ones to be) rich, smart, good looking, happy, healthy, comfortable, or safe.

I had occasion this past week to use John 14:13 to encourage a group of bright Christian students as to their studies: remember Solomon, and ask for wisdom.

Here is where the digging stops and the buried treasure, er, lede, is revealed.

My life is changing.  The student setting was a high school economics class I began teaching last week at Mission Christian Academy in Fishers.  In August, that will be my full-time “unretired” function, teaching high history, government, and economics. After 11 years, I’m retiring May 23 as a Hamilton Southeastern Schools bus driver.

For now, I’m also at MCA, teaching Economics and 7^th grade U.S. History, two mid-day classes that fit comfortably between my AM and PM bus routes.  I felt a real call from above about this decision, and now realize the joyous freedom of education that is unbridled from denying the reality of God and the authority of the Bible. More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) joins his also-unretired wife Pam – a career English teacher at Lawrence Central H.S. – who teaches high school English at MCA.