Time to Get Your Head in the Game

For many of us, today is the day to get our heads back in the teaching game. We have a week of Christmas vacation left, but we know that if we're smart, we'll put in some hours catching up on planning so we can hit the ground running when school resumes.

Too bad we have so many more enjoyable things to distract us! There's family time, maybe some pretty snow outside, Christmas goodies to munch on, and holiday decorations to pack away for next year (even chores like that can seem fun compared to grading papers and planning for finals!).

So how can we set our eyes on the necessary school tasks at hand?

For me, one way has been reading Dalene Vickery Parker's book, Christian Teachers in Public Schools: 13 Essentials for the Classroom. One of the "essentials" Dalene discusses is Learning to Care. True, any good teacher cares for his or her students, but Dalene's stories of real students in her life helped me get my sights back on the human faces of my job. Kids may not often open up about their personal thoughts and feelings (I teach high school, remember), but if God has put me in this job, I can rest assured that my labor to help students succeed is not in vain.

If you missed Dalene's guest blog post, be sure to read "Balance and Boundaries." Post a comment for a chance to win a copy of her book.

Another way God has been helping me to get my head back in the game (and silence the pesky quitter in me) has been through reading the gospels. Throughout his three-year ministry, how many times did Jesus face criticism? How many times did His hearers not understand His message? How many times did He feel out of place? How many times did He have to repeat Himself, oversimplify a concept, spell out something that should have been obvious?

Jesus, in His humanity, must have been frustrated every day by His interactions with even His most devoted followers. Yet in His deity, He cared, He loved, He helped, He healed, He gave. Have I done the same for even three years at my current job? Am I willing to call on the Lord's help to be His ambassador for one more semester, one more year, one career's worth of teaching in the public schools?

My prayer is that God will help me to do the job He has called me to do, having a heart to care for the people who frustrate me most, and not fainting when the going gets tough and the days are evil. I pray this for you as well this sunny December morning.

Herod--Alive and Well

The Magi in the House of Herod by James Tissot

Heading into the holiday season, I've begun rereading the Gospel of Matthew. The interplay between faith and law, even in the Christmas story, foreshadows some of the struggles Christ-followers through the ages face when interacting with government. In chapter two, this verse has been of particular interest to me:

"When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him."

Herod is troubled. . .threatened. He consults the chief priests and scribes about this child who is born "King of the Jews." Just what do the Scriptures say? he wonders. Maybe it is the wise men's words, "We have come to worship him" that set him searching the Jewish scriptures in earnest, perhaps for the first time.

Although Herod may have been a practicing Jew, his parents were both Arabs. His subjects eyed him with suspicion because of his allegiance (however strained) with Rome. A potential fulfillment of Messianic prophesy could not sit well with him. Matthew says,

"he demanded of them where Christ should be born" (v. 4b).

From Bethlehem, the scribes explain, will come

"a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel" (v. 6b).

These words are followed, in Micah's prophesy, by the words, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (5:2b). Not just a governor, a rival ruler for Judea, but an eternal King.

Christians today live in the realm of men and women in authority who, like Herod, are "troubled," threatened by their interactions with us. Our testimonies blaze forth like living prophesies of the eternal Messiah, even when we say nothing. Live your faith simply and honestly, and you cause many people around you to wonder, "What would cause her to choose this stance?" Or maybe even, "What do the Scriptures say?"

Intercessory Prayer

Once again I am thankful for the informal network of caring Christian coworkers at my school who uphold me in prayer whenever I ask. James 5:16 says,

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." (NASB)

We need to be courageous, but also to know our limitations. It is God's help that will see us through those sticky conferences, those tough evaluations. He gives us the responsibility to pray for one another, and He promises that our prayers will avail much.

In order to share our prayer needs with other believers, we have to be humble. We have to realize that we need help. The flip side is true, too. If we want to be the kind of person other people trust with their prayer requests, we have to be humble. We need to realize that we could just as easily be the one in need. If we are righteous (to use James's word), we will be liberal with our intercession for brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are in good company when we pray for each other: Romans says our Savior also prays for us.

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." 8:34 (KJV)

The risen Christ is occupied with intercession. In what other world religion does the deity intercede for a fallen people?

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." I John 3:1 (KJV)

So many reasons to pray; so many reasons for gratitude.