Road to Rwanda----Jesus is greater

 

A rather strange cultural/spiritual incident yesterday in school.  The students were getting comfortable on the couch and bean bag chairs for a documentary about the silk trade in China.  However, I could not see the face of one of the boys sitting on the bean bag chair on the floor.  (I have to keep an eye on them, or they might fall asleep during a video. Haha) I told him to move.  There was a whispered confrontation between him and the girl sitting on the couch which was beside the bean bag chair.  No one moved. I asked what the problem was.  The boy passionately stated that the girl had stepped over his legs splayed on the floor in getting to her seat and he would not move until she had stepped back over his legs (????)  He went on to explain that if she did not do this, he would never grow any taller (every teen age boy’s nightmare).  The girl refused to acquiesce to his request, stating that it was utter foolishness.  The class then sat and waited for me to resolve the issue.  This is a class that repeatedly has time consuming minor behavioral issues and we spend almost daily time discussing how unnecessary these behavioral moments are.  I just put my head down on my desk and sat there.  I had asked the boy how long he thought he was going to sit on the floor…., until 6 p.m.?  With every ounce of respect he could muster, he replied, “Yes, Dr. Ann. I just CAN’T move until I know I am not condemned to not growing any more!”  He was very seriously afraid, even though he realized that it probably was just a superstitious kind of response.  If I insisted that the girl walk back over his legs, she would have argued for a while, but would have finally complied, and I would have reinforced the necessity of “protecting” oneself from superstitious dictates by the local cultural norms.  I finally got up and went over beside the boy.  (The class was holding their breath.  Was I going to rather uncharacteristically pick him up and drag him to a seat?....I don’t think I could have managed that even if I wanted to.) No, I stopped by him, bowed my head and prayed that by Jesus’ blood all chains were broken in this situation and by Jesus’ power no bad consequences would happen. I then went back to my seat and told the boy to move.  He did.

Granted this is a rather bizarre situation to the Western mind, but I felt good about the interaction.  We are bound by many spiritual ties, attached to our cultures, our families, our circumstances.  As Christians we need to recognize how real these ties are and rather than ignore them, or disregarding them, or forcing our human will over them, we need to exercise the power of God in the situation.  I make sure I draw a diagram on the white board in my classes.  At the very far corner at the bottom of the board I put “us”.  I then ask where the “angels” should go.  We generally decide it should be above “us” but not too far.  I then ask about “Satan”.  I make sure he ends up above “us’, and sometimes slightly above the “angels”, but it makes for an interesting conversation and we look at scriptures like Satan wrestling with Michael to get to Daniel, etc.  Then I ask where “God” goes.  There is some silence and in general they want “God” above “Satan”, but at times the students want “God” and “Satan” locked in some cosmic struggle over “us”.  I refuse to make that visual image and eventually place “God” at the extreme farthest upper corner of the board (sometimes even off the board on the wall) above “us” and  “Satan”.  They get the picture and have often said how thankful they are for this representation.  I am eternally grateful for the spiritual weapons we have at our disposal and the ability to wield these weapons in my daily life.  If I did not have the Holy Spirit’s power to combat situations like what transpired in my class yesterday, I am sure I would never dare live the life that I have lived in the far flung areas that I have lived….but I would be deceiving myself if I thought I did not need the same power sitting in nice cozy Minnesota or South Carolina.