Faithful

"Faithful people know they are being trusted." My Perspectives reader gave me another experience of reading something again, as if for the first time.

I thought of how I acted in the past as a teacher if I didn't feel I was being trusted. My eyes would squint a little bit when I saw our curriculum coordinator. I focused on what he said the last time we met. It took more to make me smile or laugh. I started to laugh at more at sarcasm and I used it more readily myself.

I more easily forgot what God had entrusted to me with that great job.

"Faithful people know they are being trusted. Zeal to fulfill that trust distinguishes the faithful from those who are merely dutiful. The dutiful perform what is required, and so they are sometimes daunted in the face of sacrifice. The faithful remain dedicated to the One who entrusts them despite high cost. Sacrifice is a light thing for them because they have already entered some of the joy of their Master, who commends them for being not only good, but also faithful." This can be found on the cover page of Chapter 8 of Pioneers of the World Christian Movement.

I believe that teachers who are faithful to Him who has placed them, are pioneers in a movement right now in March 2009. The movement is in a battle to tumble the divide between sacred and secular in a Christian teacher's mind. For the joy set before them, they keep the Kingdom of God in mind and bring redemptive pictures to life in the faces of Maria, Dante', Micah, Jenny, Beth, Michael, and the list goes on and on and on.

We followers of Jesus in education get together to pull back the curtain on the Kingdom, to remind each other of who we are and who we're being called to be. One of those beautiful callings is to be faithful and be faithful in remembering that we are being trusted by our Heavenly Father.

Extremes

I'm reading through the Psalms this spring. They often start with an extreme statement and end on the other extreme. For example, today is Feb.6, so I read Psalm 6. Verse 1 begins,"O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony." Only 9 verses later I read, "The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer."

What an experience of talking to the Lord. It's not either, it's both. We do have to cry for mercy and we do get to acknowledge that he has heard us. Sometimes, those two things are just a breath away from each other. Just because we say one thing, doesn't mean we're omitting the other. I find it easy to be offended or discouraged when I interpret what's going on without the big picture.

I have to insert a cross-country skiing example, because at this time, it is the place where I feel my thoughts are the most clear. I'm giddy with delight when I see we have a 4" snow. That means the trackers can go out and groom the cross-country ski trail. But I go out to ski and I'm bummed that I'm not in good enough shape to really ski hard. Weeks later I may cry out, "Woe is me, the snow is melting!", yet have a great time skiing on the frozen ice if I bother to use sticky klister for such conditions. I can really fly then, but if I do, it's often too fast for me to safely negotiate a downhill run. I fall into an extreme and I can get hurt somehow.

Taking Perspectives is a little like that. We pray for people a half a world away who we don't know and yet let a parade of need walk past us at school everyday without taking a second to pray for them for days. Or we pray for our own needs, families, goals, classroom and friends, but forget there's a world of hurt out there with out the hope of even knowing the gospel. Both are going on. It's hard to care for everything. We have limits. When we're living at capacity, we're full. But, taking Perspectives gives us an experience in caring about a place we haven't cared for lately or sometimes at all.

When we realize there are sheep without a shepherd, we're grateful to have a time, place, and brothers and sisters in Christ who will join in prayer with us for them. Perspectives helps us do that.

I remember the first time I went through the class, I kept thinking, "...but what about here and now? What about teachers in their mission field?" We eventually addressed that and I was relieved. It's been so good for me to walk through this process again, because I needed to have my heart and mind expanded back to the place where Perspectives takes us-to the nations.

We need each other to think straight. I need to hear about your life and your classroom or I can become dangerously introspective about my life and my classroom. I am capable of even being obsessive about the nations to the point that I don't listen to or really look at individuals and the way that God is using them right in front of me. The fall has really damaged the way we think. I believe that we need each other in the body of Christ in schools to help us think rightly of our mission field. Without each other, we'll most likely fall into an extreme and it will eventually hurt somehow.

The Kingdom of God in Education

Welcome to a great experiment for Christians who have busy lives, who also happen to be taking Perspectives on the World Christian Movement and who are educators in the public schools. Let's talk about things we can't see and things we can. I believe it will be a memorable adventure for us educators to take together. Let's talk about what it means to be a Christian in this world, in Iowa, in the school buildings that God has landed us in, in 2009. Or, you are most welcome to join us if you're from outside Iowa.

All of life is integrated. So, we can't fragment who we are, really. We're not just teachers or counselors or administrators or staff. We all wear so many hats in this life outside our "jobs". But, let's try to bring our mission field into focus and see if we can enjoy what God's already doing in us as the Body of Christ.

I'll kick us off and it would be great if you could then respond a bit so we can enjoy conversation outside the time constraints of our Sunday evening class. Others will most likely join in, but Marshalltown, let's get started.
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Matthew 6:33 "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. " How many times have I sung that song? Yet, I'm blown away again by the truth that He is MY King and He is Our King. His Kingdom has come and the Kingdom will come. In fact, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13-14
That has happened! Now and not yet. Wow, how can both things be true? They are.

So, when we drive to school and pray for our day, we can ask the Lord to walk with us in His kingdom throughout the day. We can ask Him to rescue us from the darkness of unforgiveness and forgive as we breathe, forgive the student who snaps back, forgive ourselves for being impatient with our co-teacher, forgive the student who didn't ask for help, who gave up. We can forgive the student who took our King's name in vain.

I copied down Jeff Lewis' definition of the Good News of the Kingdom:"God has come to give us life and to defeat the enemies of God and man. He invites mankind to enter the blessings of His redemptive reign and charges him to live out the reality of His rule in community that has been sent out to engage the world." These are delicious words.

If we are sent out in community to engage the world, perhaps it would be good to see other Christ followers who engage the world alongside us in our schools as the Body of Christ...the church...our church. This takes putting on those new Jr. Birdman eyes :) How exciting it is to know God's at work at school and He loves it when we join Him with our Brothers and Sisters.