Spring

So I took a walk today with the family. No profound words today; just a few pictures of spring blooms in the neighborhood.

Pruning

So it's been approximately two weeks since Nicoll and I started our some of our plants for our garden (obviously inside at this point in the year). You can see that some seeds have taken root and sprouted (two varieties of tomatoes and broccoli), while others haven't (eggplant and bell peppers). I'm sure there are dozens of verses in Scripture that I could muse over and ponder their meaning in light of my current experience with teaching and how some students listen and others don't, just like those seeds.

I think the thing that interests me more, though, is that today I had to prune out the extra plants from each little pot. Obviously, next year we won't sow quite as many seeds in a single area, but we're this time around, we're new at this. Anyway, in some squares we had as many as 7 or 8 little tomato plants sprouting. Unfortunately, I had to prune out most of those additional plants to ensure that they didn't choke each other out. Below lies the carnage:



Now that our garden is much... slimmer... than before, I can't help but think about how this process happens often in nature. Not only do we have to prune plants to ensure maximum fruit-baring, but many animals will kill the weaker of their offspring: for example, often a female dog will kill a puppy that she deems weaker in order to increase the chances for the other pups to survive.

And I can't help but wonder... why? What makes us root out the weak? How often do I do that in my own life with my students, focusing on the students who I feel like I can make the most impact on? With my own relationships? And how much of it is necessary? How much did Jesus prune his relationships to maximize his impact? Or did he prune them at all? Obviously, Jesus didn't heal every sick person that came to him; how did he choose? The same goes for the apostles. What in my life do I need to prune in order to maximize my resources and make the most impact? If I spread myself to thin, then I won't grow any deep roots and I will just wither away. But how do I make those decisions when there are so many godly works?

These are just a few questions I've been pondering. Feel free to post your thoughts, and I will post some of mine when I come up with some answers.
I welcome your thoughts, because all I have are questions today.

You Are More

"You Are More" is the title of a song by Tenth Avenue North.

This song has some of my favorite lyrics, especially in the chorus. Here's a snippet:

"You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade."

This song affects me on many different levels. One of those is a professional level. Everyday I see students who have no hope. They feel helpless in their plight, and many of them feel doomed to a life of poverty at best and prison or an early death at worst.

These students, at least the ones I have had one-on-one conversations with, seem to feel like they have been labeled by the system as a troublemaker, and that there is nothing they can do to break that perception. At this point in the conversation, I typically try to help students see what they have done to develop that perception for themselves and what they can do to change it.

If only it were that easy. The system is against them. It's not just their perception. It's not just the result of their actions (although they play their part). The system historically labels people and treats them accordingly, and it makes me nauseous.

And I think the worst part for me is that it's not any one system. It's not just the education system; it's not just law enforcement; it's not just American society; it's not just a contemporary problem. The worst thing about it is that it seems to be able to be traced back across human history.

Perhaps since God marked Cain for his sin, we got in the habit of labeling people according to their actions.

But praise God that Jesus came and changed all of that. Because of Christ, I long to sing "You are more than the choices that you've made, You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create, You've been remade" to my students. Sadly, my job doesn't allow for that. At least, it doesn't allow me to tell them how Jesus has saved them.

On more than one occasion, I have had the opportunity to tell a student who had confided in me how he or she was perceived by teachers or others in authority that our mistakes don't define us--how we bounce back from them tell the world who we are.

I don't know how much it helps, but hopefully it at least plants a seed that there is something more in life: that there just might be hope for them, yet.

Just a few thoughts at the end of a Monday. Let me know what you think or try to clarify any of my fuzzy points. (like I said: It's the end of a Monday.)

Planting Seeds

For the last year-and-a-half, I have been teaching 7th graders. Occasionally, at the end of the day, I leave feeling frustrated because I don't see the results I want to see. However, I understand that teaching takes time. It's like planting a seed: the growing season is just a little longer in humans.

Today, Nicoll and I planted some seeds that we plan on transferring into a garden after the last frost.
We planted eggplant, bell peppers, and broccoli.

Hopefully, seeing the growth in our garden this year will help me to see the growth my students are experiencing in my classroom.


On a more spiritual note, for centuries monks (and others who are spiritually minded) have devoted themselves to tending gardens as a spiritual endeavor. There are many different spiritual lenses that one could use to look at gardening, but I want to focus on the aspect of penance.

When I speak of penance, I speak of the voluntary acceptance of doing (or not doing) something as a way of showing God one's penitence for his or her sin. In the book of Genesis, God cursed the ground because of Adam and told him "in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field."

The majority of my life I have eaten the fruits of the labor of others: both figuratively and literally. I have been in the work force for two-and-a-half years now, so for over 22 years I ate at the expense of others. And I certainly have never had to painfully work to grow the food I ate.

I say all that to say this: as I am planting seeds of knowledge in the minds of my students and I have come to understand what an arduous and painful process educating is, it has made me want to work for my food in a very concrete way--partially as professional development, but largely for penance for the sin that I have brought into the world.

I'm sure that there will be several more posts to come about gardening, planting, and growing as this process continues--there is certainly enough biblical material to go off of.

Just a few of my thoughts; yours are welcome in the comments.