The Christian Goal of the Eight-Fold Path

Today, I practiced a learning exercise that really does a lot for me: teaching. I did teach six times today, actually, but there was one main point at which I was really getting something from what I said. Hopefully, the students found my insight more valuable.

In world history, I covered the foundations of ancient India and China. This required a little on the Indo-Aryans, a little on the Huang river, and a lot on Hinduism and Buddhism. I was particularly interested in teaching this as I have a student whose mother is a Hindu, which is the basis for her own "faith." Well, I explained the basic teaching of the fragmentation of the Brahman and the karmatic cycle of reincarnation and the caste system and did a decent job of laying out the rudiments in the time I had. I went on to Buddhism, and I was talking about the "Noble Eight-Fold Path" when I said something I hadn't thought of before:

"See, the whole point of the eight-fold path is to get rid of desires. You can compare this to the Christian doctrine of dying to self."

Whoa, whoa, hang on, Conner. I'd just stumbled upon the idea that the main ethical teaching of Buddhism is comparable to salvific and sancitific principles in Christianity. But the whole point is totally backwards.

In Buddhism, the goal is to lose oneself in the One, the Life Force, the Brahman. To become nothing. In Christianity, the goal is to unite with the One, the Godhead, the Christ. To become whole.

While both religions teach a strange sort of brokenness (fragmentation in one, fallenness in the other), one teaches total annihiliation as the ultimate good, and one teaches total glorification as the ultimate good. Huge.

New blog

First things first: Amy and I now have a blog with current events in our lives. This way, you can see what's going on without having to muddle through all my thoughts on this blog. The URL is: http://connerandamyarmstrong.blogspot.com/

And now to the thoughts that you're welcome to muddle through.

My subject today is all my hope and yet I feel like I'm only reconciled to it, not really hoping in it: Heaven.

"When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." Matt. 13:46


I talked about this passage in my Bible class yesterday, mainly because I have one student in there who thinks that the Bible is plausibly true but is not going to throw his life into it, at least not yet. As you and I are well aware, this is problematic. You can't think the Bible is true and not put your faith in it. As Sheldon VanAuken writes in A Severe Mercy, "No one is incidentally a Christian." No, this pearl is not for putting on the shelf and looking at. It is the thing for which we get rid of all others to own. He sold everything so he could own a pearl of infinite value. He gave it all up.

And that's our calling. My calling is to forget my dreams and dream a better one. As I wrote in my poem, a few blogs below, "There are higher mountains in Heaven than the ones you've missed." But the ones I've missed here on earth on the ones I feel for. My calling is to admit the ache I have for the things I sojourn with on earth and pass them by for the Pearl of Greatest Price.

I don't understand why it's so hard to choose Something that's better anyway.

How graceful should I be with myself?

I remember a speaker at the Catalyst conference last October saying something about how, "If we are going to give God the glory for everything good, why do we always blame ourselves for something bad?"  I've not fully digested this question, yet, but I'm going to try to consider it via blog.

The reason I ponder it is because of my classes.  They haven't been bad.  They've actually been pretty good for the most part.  But I do have some students who don't speak English very well, and I get a lot of blank stares every time I explain an assignment (usually for the fourth or fifth time).  If they're not understanding what I'm saying when I give instructions, I wonder what they are understanding the rest of the time I'm teaching.

And I find it a little hard not to blame myself for it.  Maybe I'm just not good at explaining things.  Maybe my assignments are not good for high school students.  They sound easier than college stuff and seem to still force thought, but it just doesn't seem to get through.  But I know God could make people understand what I'm saying.

I just wonder, if I'm to give God the glory for everything good, what should I do with everything bad?  I know blaming Him is wrong.  Maybe I should just lift it before Him more.  Pray more.  Care more beforehand and less afterwards.  Reminds me of something from the "Worldview and Life" conference:

"For us, there is only the trying.  The rest is not our business."

-T. S. Eliot

Teaching the Life of Christ

We're here in Suriname now, and classes start on Monday.  I'm teaching four social studies classes, drama, and a course on the Life of Christ.  Yikes.

In my Life of Christ syllabus, I have written the following statement:

"The study of the life of Christ is an all-encompassing study of life, as revealed through the One who has always lived and came to live among us as an example."

As I have a pretty free reign with this class (my only criteria being that I follow the Bible, use some real curriculum often, and do not stray from biblical teaching), I'm pretty excited to be able to teach the basic idea for a biblical worldview.  As we would try to teach on the worldview team, all the ultimate questions (Where did we come from?  What does it mean to be human?  What is the purpose of our lives?  How, then, should we live?  What happens after this life?) are answered in the person of Jesus Christ.

I'll be trying to tackle the concept of Christ the Eternal Second Person of the Trinity in this first week.  Look out, theology!