Providing a Compass

Several years ago I was sitting in a theater watching Mr. Holland's Opus, an inspiring tale of a frustrated musician working to write his orchestral masterpiece, his opus, only to realize in the end that the students' lives he had touched over the years were truly his opus.  It remains one of my favorite "teacher movies."

However, right in the middle of this thoroughly secular movie came a statement with profound worldview implications.  Mr. Holland is talking with his principal, explaining that he is doing his job, arriving on time, and doing the best he can to teach his students.  His principal responds, "A teacher is two jobs. Fill young minds with knowledge, yes. But more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste."

I almost came out my chair.  I wanted to turn to the audience and exclaim, "Did you hear what she just said?  She is stealing bricks from my worldview to build her own!"  The over-riding theme of our time, reflected again and again in our culture, is the denial of anything resembling absolute truth.  The spirit of the times is a very post-modern view, one which says "Everyone must find their own truth.  Your truth doesn't necessarily apply to me; it is just your truth.  What is true for you is not true for me."  Of course, Biblical claims of truth are simply one man's idea in this view.

Yet, Principal Jacobs above, whether she realized it or not, was proudly proclaiming the existence of absolute truth.  You see, of what value is a compass if "true north" does not exist?  If there is not a true north for my compass to point to, then I might just as well be staring into my coffee cup for direction.  The truth of the matter, in a post-modern world there is no use for a compass.

But viewed from a Biblical perspective, Principal Jacobs' statement makes perfect sense.  There is a "true north" found in the person and character of God himself.  As parents and Christian school teachers, our job is to point our students to Him, daily.  The "compass" that Principal Jacobs talks about is called "wisdom" in Proverbs.  In chapter 2 Solomon exhorts his son to "make his ear attentive to wisdom and incline his heart to understanding" so he can "walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and understanding righteousness and justice and equity, every good path."

That is a compass pointing to "True North"!!