Conviction

Woke up this morning sincerely believing it was Friday.  It's not.  It's Wednesday.  I feel cheated.

Anyone else feeling like their week is just draggggggging on?  I'm sure it has something to do with the anticipation of next week when school finishes up for the semester and we head into our Christmas break.  The days always feel long when you're looking forward to something.  

Everyone at school is getting sick.  There's a terrible flu making its way around the campus, and the teachers are finally getting hit.  I happen to have an incredibly powerful and crafty immune system that only likes to shut down when I'm suffering extreme stress (April and May of every year) or during summer break when no one should ever be sick.  Otherwise, I'm healthy as a horse.  My poor roommates have both been sick several times each since the beginning of the semester (Dawn even got the chicken pox, poor thing).  We're running out of subs for classes with how many staff have to stay or go home.  

And on top of all of that, I think everyone's officially toast.  Emotionally, relationally, spiritually.  All done.  Ready for Christmas.  The teacher's lounge hasn't exactly been the chipperest of places this week.

But Jesus has really been taking care of me this week in my classroom.  What could have been a "busy work"/filler kind of week has turned into some really sweet time with my students.  

My seniors are working through a poetry unit for their AP coursework and I think they're really learning.  And, bless her heart, one of my students just seriously has been making my day every third period.  This girl LIVES for poetry.  A song-writer, great reader, and wonderfully articulate young woman, she has little ephemeral moments now and then in class where she just gets "in her zone" and revels in the written word.  She literally giggled the other day when she found anthologies of poetry in the school library.  I've told her she's spoiling my future as a teacher with the prospect of never again having another student who's quite this passionate in my class.  I'm sure I'll look back and think, "Why can't every student be like her?"

Today, we went over the Ballad in class.  We read "Sir Patrick Spens" as an example, and I pointed out how the writer of the ballad had written phonetically (as did most writers before Gutenberg), and so it would be best to read it with the original Scottish accent to get the full effect and better understand the story.  And they totally went for it!  I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while.  

And then there's my junior class.  An opinionated and ornery bunch, I took advantage of their love of debate and feistiness and I'm having them complete the semester with a unit inspired by NPR's "This I Believe" radio program that started in the 1950's.  We've spent a good amount of time throughout the semester focused on rhetoric, logical fallacies, and building argument, but I've yet to ask the kids to write truly personal pieces this year.  

So their assignment for their final is to write their own "This I Believe" essay - a personal philosophy statement of sorts.  We read and listened to dozens of examples, and they've written their first drafts.  I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the things they've written about.  

Here are some of my personal favorite lines and excerpts:

• "I believe that if we truly cared about our fellow humans, instead of being concerned about giving money to make ourselves feel less guilty, we would actually help them. Ourselves. In person. Face to face. No matter what mood I am in or what I feel like doing, it’s my responsibility as a Christian. To share the love of Christ is not just a responsibility but a privilege. I know that Christ died for me, and everyone else on earth. I know that He died for that street boy right next to me, who is talking to me and asking me for help. How can I not tell him?"
• “It is beyond my mind how he could make some thing so small and detailed as the eye and at the same time a whole planet. Truly he is a God of awesome wonder. Not only has he made all this things, he has put them together in a way that they coexist, the presence of one helps the existence of another.”
• “At that point I finally figured out what I believe…I believe that Kenya needs to wake up and realize that there’s a lot of abuse happening in this country, especially to children and there’s no social service organization to deal with what’s going on or to help this children that are being abused by their families.”
• “How is it fair that I have been born so privileged and they haven’t? What is different about me? Nothing is different, nothing is distinct between me and them other than the accident of birth place. Nothing is different from them and the people who spend thousands on Christmas items for themselves when they are actually missing the Christ from Christmas.”
• “Truth is constant and does not waiver. For example, I believe in God but unfortunately I go against Him because I am a sinful creature. Nevertheless, He is still there and does not change no matter what I do. I can choose to not believe in Him, but he will still be truth.”
• “I believe I can fly; not in the literal way as there are complications with gravity, but in the hypothetical view, as to overcome what is in my way. I believe that as humans, our mindset has a limit, but when we overcome it we achieve pure creativity. I believe in a God that not only controls even the pathway of fire ant in the savannah, but that is holy, omnipotent, and a million other things our mind can’t begin to understand.” 

Is it just me or does this not give you an incredible hope for the future?  I’ve been so encouraged by some of these students and their newfound conviction in the things they believe.  This is why I’m in education.  I may be in the middle of a much-too-long week, but I’ll tell you what.  This tickles me to pieces.

If you’d like to read the essay drafts my students have written for their This I Believe project, visit this link to our online forum.  Be blessed and encouraged in this holiday season.