At Christmastime I found myself applying for teaching jobs at public schools. These schools required my college transcripts in order to consider my fitness for leading one of their classrooms. This strikes me as ludicrous. After 15 years of youth ministry experience and now 15 years of classroom experience – the last 7 of which took place in the poorest nation in this hemisphere, my college GPA strikes me as possibly the least relevant indicator imaginable of my competency to lead an 8th grade classroom!  I have taken groups of students across the border to Mexico, into the inner city,…

In late summer, when we realized that we would not be returning to Haiti and that Melissa and I would have to start looking for other work, the one possibility I ruled out for myself was teaching in a public school.  I loved teaching at Cap-Haitien Christian School – I had wonderful, unique students (including my own kids), super small classes, and the opportunity to speak the gospel on a daily basis. There was no way I was ever going to return to large classes in a public school, haunted by standardized testing and paperwork and unable to speak the…

I’m not sure there is a commandment from Jesus broken more often than “If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them.” (Mark 11:25) Forgiveness is central to the Christian life and should be practiced frequently and relentlessly within the Christian community. If we find it difficult or impossible to forgive even small slights, that could be an indication of the presence of toxic self-righteousness.  Self-righteousness stifles any nudge by the Spirit towards forgiveness of others. If I am never wrong, I don’t need forgiveness myself and I am not likely to extend it to others. This mindset does not take…

 I mentioned yesterday that I should have kept my complaints to myself and just prayed through my situation, leaving it in God’s hands. I think I’m onto something. Today it occurred to me that there is Scriptural precedent. David’s prayer from the cave recorded as Psalm 142 starts like this: “I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk…

 James 5:9  “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door!” I have learned the hard way how destructive “grumbling” can be. The Greek word is “stenazete” and Strong’s gives the following definition: “to complain, to groan, expressing grief, anger, or desire … to sigh, murmur.” It’s running people down behind their backs. It’s throwing a pity party for yourself while blaming someone else for your circumstances. It’s taking pot shots at another person’s reputation when they are not present to defend themselves. It’s setting yourself up as the…

 A podcast I listened to over the weekend asserted that for a message to change the world, a long, complicated, rational argument is nowhere near as powerful as a simple bumper sticker.  But I don’t think it’s either/or. The bumper sticker is an important starting point. To create one, the world-changer must concentrate the essence of his message into a single, memorable sentence.  That sentence, then, catches the attention of others, creating enough agreement and/or curiosity in at least some minds to open the door to a hearing for the longer explanation. This was the approach of God Himself when…

[Disclaimer: this is not a political post. What is at issue is critical thinking in general, something in which it seems we all could use a refresher course regardless of political allegiances.] Last Monday I came across several people on Twitter enraged over viral video of a Florida manatee which, according to news sources, “had ‘TRUMP’ carved into its body”. Although the water was somewhat murky, the offending word was clearly visible in large letters spanning the length of the animal’s back.  One tweet regarding the manatee that caught my eye in particular was comedian Jim Gaffigan. I’ve always liked…