I recently encountered an interesting article in USA  Today regarding adjustment difficulties experienced by a swath of the current twenty something generation.  The problem described is that many of this generation, raised on a steady diet of praise, affirmation and self-esteem philosophy, are now encountering a hardtack buffet of reality.  In other words, the workplace is less anxious to stroke feelings and egos than the parents  and teachers of days gone by.  One dean of education at a major university said that she has to keep a ready supply of tissues to staunch the flow of tears after a first critical review of a student's work.  Reality can be very... real.
    G. K. Chesterton commented that modern society's tragedy of thought is not only to be found in the bare knuckled presence  of evil.  It is also a concern that virtues, proper in their place, are roaming unattached, presenting us with new sources of danger.  Indeed, fire in its proper place can be used to heat a house; fire outside the fireplace can burn it down.
    The subtle beauty of our Christian faith is that it holds onto competing tensions with a fierce sense of balance.  Take self-esteem, a murky concept that Christians have often wrestled with.  On the one hand, it seems perfectly scriptural and logical that a loving God yearns to restore the sense of well-being  and favor that was so tragically lost in the garden.  "I have come that they may have life," said Jesus, "and have it more abundantly."
    But then the paradox corkscrews our necks in the opposite direction.  The good news, the life, the good feelings, are delivered in the context of very bad news about us.  We are sinners.  We are worthy of the death on the cross that Jesus died for us, and we find a higher place by descending to a lower one.  If you want to feel good about yourself, then be prepared to face the hard edge of your depravity on the journey to that deliverance.
    It may sound like so much philosophical rambling, but the practical ramifications are very, very important.  Good quickly becomes damaging when it is torn screaming from its divinely appointed context.  And from this cautionary tale emerges the fragile, wonderful, awe-inspiring potential of Christian education: balance- God's balance.
    Should Christian schools be loving places where the individual worth of each child is nurtured and affirmed?  They better be.  Every child bears the image of God, however marred, and schooled must honor God's longing to restore and recreate the soul though the severe mercy of His love.  Rigor without feeling can be every bit as damaging as compassion without accountability.
    The intense potential of God's design scares, inspires, humbles, devastates and refreshes me.  He is our all in all, and in Him, truly Christian education must move and have its being.