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(36.) Q is for Quest

(36.) Q is for Quest

(36.) Q is for Quest

“Tell the truth, but tell it slant,” says Emily Dickenson. Be real, but communicate reality from the side, through the imagination, I think she is saying. And that’s how life lessons are learned. There is no better way to prime a student’s mind and spirit for the challenges of life than through the heroic encounters found in quest literature. Every human being is born in the mood for adventure, for life is a God-given quest… a suspenseful journey with a purpose, an exciting adventure to locate a treasure, a risk-filled challenge to defeat an evil or to right a wrong.

To quest is to single-handedly travel from one place to another to reach a noble goal. And such is life… A seeking, an answering to a call. Since the truth of the human quest is basic to growth and maturity, that idea needs to be woven into education from day one. In fact, restlessness for God is indeed the ultimate quest common to all people. The truth is, though, that we have been detoured on that journey, traveling instead on a painful pleasure cruise for self-glory. Becoming our own gods, we have lost our true selves. And so now, for all of us, our quest is to find God and to love Him, and in that process have our real selves returned to us.

A Christ-centered school’s role is to discover truth and prepare pilgrims for a life of godly adventure. This involves  realistic exposure to reasonable risk, not only through the imagination but also experience, while remaining physically safe of course. Jacques Ellul says it best… “Christian education must educate for risk and for danger. We must not shelter the young from the world’s dangers, but arm them so they will be able to overcome them. We are talking about arming them not with a legalistic and moralistic breastplate, but with the strength of freedom. We are teaching them not to fight in their own strength, but to ask for the Holy Spirit and to rely on Him. Parents must be willing to allow their children to be placed in danger, knowing that there is no possible education in Christ without the presence of the real dangers of the world, for without danger, Christian education is only a worthless pretty picture which will not help at all when children first meet up with concrete life.”

Seeking is in the blood, and it’s good to know that our Hero has gone before us and bound the dragon.