a bad moon rising

Sitting here in Croatia surrounded by mine fields; I was looking out my guest room window here on the Evangelical Theological Seminary campus, and the big fat moon is coming up over the Drava River. So no this is not a blog about Creedence Clearwater Revival's famous song from 1969, nor is it about the Fighting Fantasy Gamebook by Davy Stedham nor is it a blog about the rioting in France last year and this famous cartoon that was printed about it.

No instead it is about empowerment. As I am sitting here contemplating this moon and trying to see it's secrets, I am also in the middle of deciding to fail several students or not. These particular students have a history of doing the bare minimum and cutting the maximum number of classes, and pushing the limits to the edge, class after class. In fact I had two of them last year and it was the same story. So evidently no one, including me I must admit, has been enforcing the attendance and requirement policies of the Seminary. We are in fact, empowering these students to continue to be lazy and do marginal work.

On the other hand, they are some of the brightest and gentlest folks in the class. What a dilemma! I want to encourage their intellect and wonderful hearts, but the demands of life also require a measure of discipline in order to excel. One side of me says, "let the policies do what they were designed to do" and in general I agree with them. But what if the policies are incapable of accomplishing their intended goals, and in fact accomplish the opposite in certain students?

I was a marginal student at one point . . . not so much in college and later, but certainly in high school. In fact I was below average academically because of extreme laziness. Finally I found/got/was given some internal motivation and the rest is history. So I feel that a bad moon is rising, because I think I will have to let the consequences fall on them this time. I will let them appeal to the Academic Dean if they feel wronged. Did justice override mercy?