The Effort of Teaching

I teach a class of 16 girls. The other day after class was dismissed, I was lagging behind cleaning up my materials while the students for the next class were coming into the room. One of the guys hesitantly asked me "Can I just ask, for curiosity, what class this is that you teach? It's all girls....... and you're a guy teacher." I suppose he was looking for some interesting answer like Cooking and Child Rearing 101, or Knitting for the Modern American Woman, but I had to give him the blase answer of Storytelling. Don't ask me how this happened. They filled up the class and had it closed before any guys could register for the class. Granted, there's not a LOT of guys who wind up registering for Storytelling, but there are a few of the Speech majors, and at least one that would've been in this class this semester had it not already been full. But alack, alas, he was too late. I actually have 17 people in my class since one of my students is married and pregnant, but they're not saying whether our smallest participant is a boy or girl yet, so I still may be the only guy present. Besides, he/she is really pretty quiet and doesn't contribute much to the classroom environment other than to make his/her mother shift uncomfortably in her desk, so I tend to think of my class as just 16 girls.

Teaching a class of 16 girls has it's challenges, particularly when they are not in your field of study. 95% of these girls are Education or Youth Ministries majors, and are only taking Storytelling because they have to. They're not used to the slightly-less-structured colorful flow of an interpretation class. When we first started the semester, all 16 of them would sit there in complete silence and stare at me with expressionless faces while I spoke. I wasn't used to that and I must say it unnerved me no small amount. Granted, I want my students to pay attention; I don't want them tooting trumpets and banging drums while I attempt to lecture, but you don't have to sit there in complete silence and stare. My attempts to thaw out the temperature of the room with some light witticism or unexpected humor were often greeted with uncomprehending faces. Sigh, tough crowd.

Now, I'm happy to say, it's a completely different class. I walked in to class the other day and the entire room was one mass of chatter, people standing around in little groups and animation and emotion bouncing off the walls. Our class is often punctuated with bouts of laughter, and generally my students look happy to be there. They feel comfortable enough to tease me at times (usually without crossing the line), and they can take a little hard time from me. It does a teacher's heart good. And, I hope, somewhere in the middle of all this, they're learning how to be better communicators.

God Bless,
--Nick

A Good Thing for our Nation

So the dust has settled, the votes are in, and the temporary surge in political interest has already begun to wane back to it's original state. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm one of those "temporary" Americans. I am a Christian, a conservative, a Republican. I don't believe in a woman's choice to murder. I believe in the right to keep and bear arms, and protecting the sanctity of God's definition of marriage: one man + one woman = for life. In short, I support the freedoms and share the solid, traditional, Biblical values that this country was founded on. And I voted. But that's about it.

The question is, what was I (and those who stand with me) doing before this election year? What are we doing now that the election is over? I don't even pretend to be super-savvy about politics, but I do have some stirrings in my heart from the recent events. Dare I say that an Obama presidency may be a good thing for this nation? No, don't shoot me, hear me out. Conservatives voted for McCain, right? Why? Because he was more conservative than Obama (key word: MORE). McCain is not a conservative, true conservatives have been uncomfortable with his candidacy ever since it began - isn't that the whole reason he brought Sarah Palin in on the ticket? But he was MORE conservative than Obama. We at least liked his stance on a couple of issues: he said he was pro-life, he said he believed in smaller government, etc. So, we chose the lesser of two evils. The problem with this equation is we get caught up in the whole contest and begin to form the illusion that our candidate really is suitable.

It all comes down to this: if McCain had gotten elected, we would've wiped our brows and said "Whew! That was close! Well, we've got at least four more years." And that would've been it. But now, Obama has been elected. We have no choice but to face the grim reality that our country is making the wrong choices and losing perspective. Now, we are being forced out of our slumber into a choice: get involved, or get happy. An Obama election is only the natural development of the direction this country has been headed for decades. You plant tomatoes you get tomatoes. You plant seeds of removing God out of the education system, condoning the slaughter of millions of unborn children a year, mocking God and His followers consistently in the entertainment industry, a skewed perspective that man is innately good and just needs the right conditions to blossom, a removal of any sense of personal responsibility from individuals: you reap an election like this, a loss of freedoms, and more distance from God's values in society.

But what are we going to do now? Are we going to engage our culture for Christ? Are we going to aggressively spread the truth in love? Are we going to do anything besides sit around for the next four years and complain at the next election? I'm not suggesting that everyone forsake their current positions in life and follow full-time political careers, but I am suggesting that we ENGAGE the world around us. Where are the Christians in the arts, producing art purely out of a gleeful desire to honor God? Where are the Christians and true conservatives in politics, reminding our leaders that not all the people of this nation want a changing ruling standard. Where are the Christians who are willing to put their heebeejeebies aside and lovingly interact with homosexuals, sharing with them that there've been many individuals who have chosen to leave that lifestyle of their own accord and have found God-designed fulfillment?

Christ is the answer. If we can't show the world that we have a living, breathing, vibrant, tangible, real relationship with Christ, we may as well stay home. It's a hurting world; it's a world that isn't necessarily ready to follow their leader off the cliff; but they will, if no one else shows them an alternative.

God bless,
--Nick