Part 1: Our Walls

We all construct walls.

And each of us may have a different reason for doing so. Perhaps you’ve been hurt, so your wall is built to protect yourself from letting it happen again. Maybe I’ve failed, so I block off that area of my life and hide it from view. Some walls grant security, and some walls bring privacy; some even hide secrets. Other walls are showy and call attention to themselves. Many walls cast long dark shadows that become immovable forces in our lives. Does your wall hold you back?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m a sheltered guy. I lock my doors to keep negative influences at bay, but also to protect the treasure that’s inside my walls...whether it be my possessions, my family, or my faith.

I believe this protective wall is inherently necessary. In this world, we need to protect what’s good behind the wall and deflect the bad stuff that can attack from beyond. Our children, YOUR children, must intentionally be taught about Jesus. And this happens behind the wall in a protected state. In fact, as parents, we’re called to do this in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

This instruction needs to happen in a sheltered area behind the wall. Parents are called to do it, and as a representative of you as your child’s teacher this year, I am called to do it. And I promise that I will. Behind the wall.

There is a wide world of information beyond the wall full of influences and temptations. This is the popular culture in which we live, and it is EVERYWHERE. It even brings negative influences into our homes, thanks largely to the Internet, which seems to settle into our lives like dust on a table.

I was inspired by a sermon or church's youth pastor preached. After diving deeper into the reading on which Bret preached, I am convinced that this protective wall that we build should be an imposing presence in our lives. And I believe that it’s the parents’ calling to impress truth on their children behind the wall. By extension, it’s my job as your child’s teacher to speak this truth behind the wall of my classroom.

What do we do about our culture? If it’s hurt us, do we hide behind the wall? If it’s failed us, do we block it off and shut it out? Or do you think we should approach the wall using a confidence that the Lord has provided so that we can look beyond the wall at our culture to make sense out of our place within it?

To do that, we have to climb the wall. To do that, we have to be on the wall.