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hyunjamomma
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Name: HyunJa
Expertise: I am an expert at using words that apparently aren't real words....go figure? CONVERSATE WILL BECOME A WORD SOMEDAY!
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Member Since:
12/15/2002
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| "Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans." -Proverbs 16:3 Delayed provision is often an insistent lesson of faith. While we don't always welcome these challenges with the right perspective they can build, within each of us, what the world tries to destroy. Who puts us on timetables that makes us feel so behind? Can we truly be satisfied when life throws us its uncertainties? I've been listening to a song lately, "Keep Your Head Up" by Andy Grammer... The lyrics go... "I'm seeing all the angles, starts to get tangled
I start to compromise
My life and the purpose
Is it all worth it,
Am I gonna turn out fine?
Oh, you'll turn out fine" I see how tempting it can be to compromise when end is no where in sight. I admit that at times it can be hard to keep perspective because there are hard cold facts that can make a person wonder. Still...the promise from God is that whatever we do, we are challenged to believe and commit them to Him. And He will establish our plans. | | |
| In my class yesterday, two boys decided they wanted to be in a movie.
As I stood outside the classroom door scolding two girls for being late again, one of my students walks in late with a pass. He goes in while I stand in the doorway. The other students were eagerly waiting to go watch the school play. Before I know it, I hear a shove, a scream, and the toppling of a desk turned over.
I think my students forgot that while we live near Hollywood, we are not in a movie. Shocked, the other students just stared in complete silence. The boy who caused the fight knew he was wrong and the other boy who toppled the desk over looked shamefully down at the ground. While verbal fights are common in my class, furniture has never been thrown. The two boys looked sad and guilty. Knowing they were in deep, deep "caca", they both looked submissively into my eyes, as to which I found a great teaching moment. I walked in with the two girls and the other students watched to wait for what I would say. Two other boys quickly picked up the desk and it was one of those weird moments of when one child misbehaves, all the others all try to appease the mom by acting super sweet and cute.
I could see that the time had finally come. They cared.
The students all shrank down waiting to be yelled at. I had to smile. Getting to this point had taken so long. I honestly didn't know if we could ever get here. I looked seriously into their eyes and said, "We are NOT the Freedom Writers." The kids just laughed while the two boys in trouble smiled nervously. They knew it'd be okay and that their day was not ruined. I should have written them up and sent them off to the dean. Actions like that usually end in in-house suspension, but I knew it was finally a day when I could teach them something different. Grace.
The boys were genuinely remorseful. They quickly said sorry to each other without me prompting them and coming to me and sharing how each of them should have done something differently. They knew they deserved to be punished, but I allowed to let it go. I could tell in their eyes, the boys knew they could finally trust me. The rest of the day was a dream. The boy who is normally a tyrant, sat quietly and well behaved. It was a victory in my book. A small one, but one that is worth much more to me because it took so much just to get here.
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| I'm not afraid of change. I am more afraid that it never will.
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| I have to intentionally stop myself at times and think, why in the world am I in such a rush? I could probably accredit it to a number of different reasons such as ambitions, survival, determination, pride, challenge, disenfranchisement, or greed. No matter which way I package it, I can't help but wonder, "why?"
Living in a consumer society where having more is more and being left behind is being left out, I can see how we are in this crazy race to "make it." Still, what does making it mean? For every person it can look a little different.
So goes the say, he who dies with the most toys wins, but what about the intentional Christian? Is this still the case? Is it he who wins the most souls wins?
Isn't it that he or she who has found Jesus and understands He unadulterated and unconditional love wins? Isn't that prize just that, the Giver of the prize? So if we, who have found Christ and have experienced His true love, have already received the only real true prize we ultimately need, why do we pine and fight for having more?
I'm not trying to be overly simplistic about the real and tangible needs of people and life. Let's face it: I'm a single woman, living on a modest income, who has come from a long lineage of "trying to make it out of the red" that knows a thing or two about heartache and inequality. However, does any of this qualify me.
I just realized while I have experienced many, many wonderful things in Christ. I somehow have not fully escaped the rat race of life. Somehow, this morning, I cannot help but think, why are you so determined to make it to the next thing? What is driving your will to push past and into what's next? Once I get there, I wonder if I would even be satisfied.
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