Discerning Even the Best of Teachers

Five years ago, I stood at the edge of a 30-foot wall with belts and ropes cinched around me as my then boyfriend (now husband) coaxed me to step backwards. “You can do this, Lara,” he said. “You’re going to be fine. It’s completely safe.” He and a fellow co-worker had convinced me it would be fun to propel down the climbing wall. “I’m terrified to do it, but you’re better than me, Lara. You can do it,” she had said when we stood at the foot of the towering wall.

At first it did sound fun. But standing on top of the wall, peering over the edge at the gravel below, fun was no longer my word of choice. “Just step backwards off the top of the wall and put your feet flat against the side,” Daniel said. “Once you’re perpendicular with the wall, you can just bounce your way down. It’s really easy.”

But everything in my body screamed against it as I stepped backwards onto the ledge. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” I gasped, grabbing Daniel’s arm. “I can’t do it.”

I had two alliances challenging one another: my love and trust for Daniel (that he would do everything in his power to keep me safe) and my body’s natural instincts telling me to flee to safety. Both had proven trustworthy in keeping me safe in the past, but both had also failed me in the past. Where should I place my trust?

Each of us is faced with decisions in life, and the hardest ones often involve people we love and know to be faithful. But have you ever felt this tension between Bible teachers you know and love? Perhaps you read a book that critiqued the beliefs of a beloved Bible teacher, or you heard an episode on your favourite podcast criticising them. Maybe like me, you’ve felt this tight tension and you don’t know what to do with it—maybe it’s even rattled your faith a little. How do we discern what’s true even among the best of Bible teachers?

Continue reading at Well-Watered Women.