Lesson(s) Learned

First of all, I want to thank the well-known-yet-ever-humble John Piper for the idea/concept behind the third part of this post. Sometimes, it takes a mouthpiece/instrument of God to verbalize what our hearts and minds are going through. To speak into our lives what our hearts are already overflowing with. To recognize it’s okay to acknowledge where we are and remember that God is so-big-and-powerful, yet right-in-our-midst – even and especially when we don’t “feel” it to be true. Part 1: Words To start, let’s go here: There’s power in words. I know this to be true. You know this to be true. We’ve all felt the stings, zings, and overwhelming things people can inflict or infuse into us with their words. Knowing that words have power is more than a first-hand experiential knowledge, however. It’s Biblical truth. In fact, the Bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Life. And. Death. Before you open your mouth to pronounce another syllabl...

When most people go to the movies, they leave during the ending credits. That is, unless there’s an after-show preview (for lack of knowing the name of those things, let’s just call it “an after-show preview”). I’ve always known this to be true; mainly, because I’ve done it. Yes, I am one of the many people who leave during the credits, too. [ or… I used to…] Yesterday, this thought was refreshed in my mind because I showed a short video clip to my students. And guess what? They did the same thing. No, they didn’t get up, leave, and retire their educational-careers at the ripe old age of discovering-double-digits. But their responses were starkly similar to people in a movie theatre. All was quiet-and-attentive on the homefront during the video. Immediately after the movie was over and the credits began to roll, it was like a talking-levee broke through in the classroom. Silence, in that moment, was no longer an option. ADD was present, and no amount of training or Ritalin was goi...