Seventh Grade Consequences

In the seventh grade my teacher figured out how to get my dad in for a parent-teacher conference to deal with my behavior without establishing a true parent-teacher conference. See, I talked a lot behind his back every day during reading class, but very carefully, so as not to get caught. Mr. Blunt would write my name on the board, but then I'd behave to avoid the checkmark by being quiet the rest of the hour. I thought I was so smart. I thought I could get away with my little infractions forever. One day, I came to school and my name was still on the board from the previous day. I said, "Hey Mr. Blunt, you forgot to take my name off the board." He said, "No, I didn't." See, he'd decided to keep it up there for a while until I got a checkmark for talking again. I was livid. I tried real hard to avoid getting into trouble, but about a week later, he finally caught me talking and up went the checkmark. I was embarrassed and resentful. Now, a check-mark didn't require a parent-teacher conference, but Mr. Blunt knew my dad would have to pick me up from after-school detention since I'd miss the bus I took home every day. Once the check-mark went up, then he'd have a chance to talk to my dad. He wanted to talk to my dad, not to shame me, but to get us into a dialogue that would help me. The ironic thing is I never saw his goodness at the time.

I've spent most of my life trying to get away with as much as possible without getting caught. Isn't this our default? Adam set a trend in the Garden of Eden that we follow quite willingly. After he took the fruit, he tried to hide from God. Then, God set out to find him. Adam hid from God in shame. God sought out Adam in love. The reality is, God is more interested in communicating with us over punishing us, just like my teacher in the seventh grade was more interested in helping me over punishing me. He wanted to communicate. I wanted to hide in shame. The irony of God's pursuit is that we run from a God who loves us.