Transcripts

In the Bible, what we have are transcripts of messages from the Lord, taken by men who often spent most of their lives in quiet, silent, meditative prayer. While no doubt these men brought with them their own biases, feelings, concerns, even prejudices of the day, this is not a reason to simply discount it. They were closer in tune than we are, and wrote what they heard from the heart. Personally, I believe it is probably the most accurate guide we have as to what God is like, what He expects, and what we are to do. The problem today is that we haven't taken the time to listen to his voice. There is too much static- too much in the way: ego, life concerns, technology-at-every-moment, sin, self, and an assortment of other problems that keep us from fully tuning in. Like a bad radio signal, we can just barely decipher a voice- a personality, speaking through fuzz and hiss. If you have ever tried to listen to a speech or a bit of news, or even a game on the radio station that wasn't coming in very well, you know what I mean. At first, it is impossible to decipher. You hear a few key words, then static, then a few more. If it's something you really want to hear, and you keep listening diligently, you'll find something else begins to happen. The jumbled parts become clearer, you find that you know what is going on and being said- even if you miss a few words here and there, you can generally keep up. This is because our mind craves patterns, and will in time put the puzzle pieces together as we listen. I think it is the same thing with His voice. Our spirit, much like the mind, craves patterns from Him. The more you focus, the more you listen in quiet with an open heart, the more you will hear. Most of us can't get beyond our own personal prayers, our own concerns, what we want, what we think we need- to just stop, sit and listen. A few get irritated with the static and will quickly move on to a clearer station- after all, there are so many out there that are easier to hear. But for the few who stay to listen, to wait for the static to lift or to clear, we may find a message that will change our lives forever.

Week 4 Reflection in the Classroom (3rd Grade)

Week 4 was a very eventful week at Jones Elementary. All of the teachers had to go to an hour long conference on Monday, so I got to go over a chapter with the class for their social studies lesson. They were reading about the branches of government and the balancing of powers in Washington. After going over some of the information, I asked them why they thought it was not a good idea to have one branch, or even one person, be in control of everything. What did they think might happen? For a few moments, the students sat quiet, then responses began pouring in: “one person might make a law that was unfair” came from a bright boy at the back of the room. A girl up front mentioned a concern: “what if they made all girls not be able to go outside?" I pointed out that in many countries, women don’t have as many rights as men for this very reason. It also might lead to total control by one person, called a “dictator”. Many already knew this term and mentioned Hitler as being a dangerous type of figure. Later, in a section on the Supreme Court building, they looked at pictures comparing it with Greek architecture and ruins, quickly seeing many of the similarities such as the large columns we use in many of our high ranking buildings today.

I had planned on teaching my first Geometry lesson on Wednesday afternoon on the different types of triangles, but there were some schedule changes, so I just decided to come in on Friday to teach it since I have no classes on that day. It turned out to be a tremendous learning experience. My lesson involved introducing an assortment of triangles and having the children make many of these on geoboards that Ms. Spake had provided. Too add depth to the discussion, and also to provide a link to prior knowledge and real life learning, I brought in a collage of many ordinary, everyday items that contained triangles. These included pictures of a sailboat, the top of a house, a mountaintop, slices of pie, tortilla chips and others. What I had not planned for was the transition time between discussing the topic and actually implementing the lesson. Passing out the geoboards, and then the rubber bands to use on them, I found that I truly had planned poorly for all of the time this seemed to take. In my mind beforehand, of course, it was pictured as flowing easily, but the kids were restless and continually seemed to be getting off task. Although they did seem to get a great deal from my instruction on triangles and making them on the boards, I felt it could have went much smoother. Luckily, Ms. Spake gave great feedback to me about the things that worked, the things that could be changed as well as steps to modify. Rather than having them each do their own triangles and being on different pages from each other, it would have been better to go through it slowly and methodically, step by step with them. They could all construct one triangle and hold it up for me to see before we moved on as a class. Since the next group would be coming in for Geometry, she asked if I would teach the lesson again to them. Agreeing to this, I found myself going through it a second time: only now, things seemed to flow much better. I took time to let the students describe triangles they see every day, asked them to point out ones they saw in the classroom, and went through each type of triangle thoroughly. Students were heavily involved this time, even coming up to the geoboard showing me how a right triangle could be “flipped”, and still be a right triangle. I found that my confidence had gained a bit since last time, and my more relaxed attitude permeated the class and the rest of my lesson. Generally, they all stayed on task with every item I had them do, and the difference was like night and day. After they went on to music, Ms. Spake went over the points of my lesson with me. She told me that often, teaching a lesson a second time will give you the needed room to improve on things that didn’t work, and can also cement in the things that did. Later, she had to leave for about thirty minutes and I was in the room with her parapro teacher. The students were working on their math sheets and I happened to notice that one girl was mumbling something to herself as she worked. It turns out that it was one of the concepts I had taught them to help them remember the name for an isosceles triangle: “I see two sides that are the same, like my two eyes, isosceles.” It was really amazing how seemingly small, insignificant changes can make a world of difference in a lesson. In everything we do, we always learn and evolve. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn . . . my God, you learn.”

Less- and More

This same God that created the heavens and the earth and everything in it and outside of it, even time itself, has- most thankfully- a very real personality. This is one area where Christianity parts ways with many other worldly belief systems. They refer to God as a "force"- or perhaps mere "energy". While I can't deny any of that as fact, it immediately strikes me as sort of a half-description, and a rather poor one at that. It's like saying that your mother or your father is "a mass of cells" or "brain matter". You might as well describe a Picasso painting as "colors", or a book of Shakespeare as "word symbols". While all of these descriptors may be true, they are somehow pitifully inaccurate ways of explaining what I like to call the Real Thing. Clearly the person who calls your loved one "a mass of cells" may in fact be scientifically accurate, but it tells me right away that they never really knew them.

Uncommon Blessings

I'm finding myself changing- each day becoming more and more open with others, more willing to "wear my heart on my sleeve", to say and do things that before I either wouldn't have taken the time to do or never would have even thought about. Like the young boy learning to write, I may have finally started crossing my "t"'s per'se- the Great Teacher, in His infinite wisdom, allowed me to fail and flounder in my own horrible choices long enough to learn what happens when I rely solely on myself. My focus is improving, my strenth is growing, and finally, after 37 some-odd years, I'm beginning to see clearly for the first time. I see miracles in situations that before would have seemed mundane, or even tiresome. The biggest change is in the way that I see people- they are becoming of utmost concern to me, the urge to help, to heal, to comfort, to connect is almost staggering - was it always there? Did I simply never notice? I'm also noticing that the more I open myself to others, the more they are opening to me: even ones that I thought I was already open with- there are new discoveries, bright and wonderful each day. And here's the best thing- the wondrous discoveries are not in myself, but in others. All this time, for all these years, I have been completely surrounded by the greatest of uncommon blessings. It's just that now I've finally begun to notice . . .

The Door

The thing that you fear the most, the thing you avoid and go around at all costs, that one thing you just really don't want to deal with- this same thing will be the door that opens you to a better life. Having the courage to finally go through it is the key, and it will make all the difference.

Lights

When you're gone, no one will ever say that you loved too much, that you cared wrecklessly for your fellow man, that you spent too much time with family and friends, that you shouldn't have helped and laughed quite so much. These are the things that will last forever in the souls of all you touched. They won't remember if you wore the latest fashion, if you knew how to spin things to make yourself look good, if you were quick witted and sarcastic, but hollow- for these are things that burn bright for a second or two, and then fade away like a shooting star. The good things stay fixed, like the eternal lights in the sky that burn on for centuries.

Learning Curve

My, God- sometimes I think that I will never learn. Just when I think I've got it all figured out, that I'm well on my way to excellence, that I'm doing and saying all of the right things, it is just then that He pulls the rug out from under me. It's not anything malicious, but it was clear as crystal. You see, when we think we're moving in the right direction, the focus becomes more on ourselves and less and less on others and, unfortunately, the Lord. This is exactly the opposite way that it should have been. In just a few days or weeks, we put Him slowly on the back burner of our lives- oh, we say a prayer of course, but do we realize that nothing else in life or the world is going to matter if He is not in it, of it, and within it always? His voice came very strong to me today, as I sat in class thinking of all that had to be done and many other stresses, His voice came like a whisper, but one I've slowly begun to recognize: "there must be less and less of you and more of others . . . and Me. Put me first, and all other things will work themselves out in due time. Then your sights will be clear and paths will be straight." I suspect all of our stresses and concerns, problems and difficulties, even the ones you think are slight and unimportant, could begin to be repaired if He became the sole focus. Like the boy who couldn't learn to swim because he was so concentrated on the fact that he might NOT be able to, we are centered on the wrong things. Thankfully, He provides a learning curve- especially as you get closer to Him: the thoughts you would have brushed away and kept worrying, now warrant a closer look. You are developing wisdom, because you are beginning to listen. As C.S. Lewis once said, "Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."