That Moment

The water bubbled over, too much wood in the fire, the bomb went off. What ever you want to call it I'm there. I'm a junior, and my life has gotten quite busy lately. Not only am I struggling with finals, I also am carrying a lot of emotional baggage. It's a tough time for me because my father goes to war soon, my mother is in California, and I am in Washington. That right there is enough to make me cry, but still more piles on. I am trying to finish strong and keep hope alive. For I have the greatest hope of all, but right now, I just keep nudging myself forward. It's funny, as many others are looking forward to their classes ending I can't look at it with the same light. A few days later I will be beginning another set of classes until the end of May. As people are happily going home I'll remain behind. I know I have hope...it's just really hard to see right now. "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30 NASB)

Teaching to Change Lives

To teach is not an easy task, it can be one of the hardest things we have to do in ministry. Just to reach others takes a lot of work in and of ourselves. We need to be relatable, real, and most important we need to be seeking knowledge ourselves. The idea of teaching is not an easy thing, but it's one of the most satisfying things we can do. Constant learning is something few professions require now a days. One of which is a doctor, the medical field is always changing and advancing. So doctors must have continuing education to stay ahead of different diseases and even gain new skills for helping their patients. Much like the doctors we also need to continue learning. There can always be something new to pull from the Bible for ourselves and for others. We should be constantly in the Word and learning from it. Also we can learn new ways to convey a message to our people (one example is for instance reading this book). The book mentioned a woman who was eighty-six years old when she died, yet just before she died she had written out her goals for the next ten yea! How full of life she must have been! At eighty-three she was walking around Israel telling professional football players to hurry up! That woman was a learner and was ready to show she wasn't too young to teach. Labels are a dangerous thing, they limit people and have a tendency to control how people flourish or fail. We recently talked about this in a devotions session during Choralons, I of all people firmly understand the devastation labels can have on a person. So I gladly spread the idea that we should cease labeling others, no more favorite children, and no more "worst-behaved" children. They are all precious and should all be treated as such, not one more than another, or one less than all. If God treated us in that manner I would be so low on the totem pole what hope could I have? "The Law of Activity tells us that Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement." I can fully get behind this statement. Often I learn most through doing, the statistics in the book even prove this is one of the best ways to remember concepts. That does not mean that something physical is always the best option. If there is no purpose to the movement then it is useless and a waste of time. Distractions, as an ADD kid I can relate to how distracting it can be in the audience. Not only is the audience distracting themselves but they can also distract the speaker. Even worse is how disheartening a distracted audience can be, it's enough to make you never want to speak again. The worst distraction I feel is when someone leaves, most people don't know how to handle it, the book actually talks about calling out such a person, playfully I'm sure. Much like anytime you speak you need to know your audience. In my situation I need to know the children I am teaching. This can be done in several ways, the first and best is to talk to the child themselves. Find out what they like, for instance we have one boy who I know likes Legos and Halo, so when I talk with him we talk about things like that. The next best thing I feel is talking to the parents about their children. Find out about sports, birthdays, recents events, all kinds of things. It takes a bit of time after church but it shows the children that I actually care about them and their interests. Also shows the parents that we really want to invest in their kids lives. You see, teaching is not the least bit about me. I am merely a vessel to be used for God. The way I teach is crucial to my mission. After all if I am teaching, yet no one is learning, there is a problem. A dangerous problem, my mission is to reach many for God, and if I am the one impeding my mission I should be the one to fix it.

Negativity

It's like a poison, a dangerous poison. I can't stand it, it's hard to listen to and to be around. I imagine it as a monster, just destroying and killing. It's enough to make me fearful and carefully watch myself and my actions. It grows and continues and kills. At times there is no stopping it until everything is dead. Titus 3:10 tells a lot about my feelings. Right now I can feel other people as the anger rises. It's crazy, but sadly it's a part of life. Life is too short to be bitter, at times that's hard for me to understand but I know I have to get over things.

I often feel like I'm looking at myself, I compare it to what I used to be. Is that what I look like? Is that what I sound like? I just want to ask, is that the kind of Christian I want to be? I know my Jesus, the one who gave his life for me, would want so much more than that from me. I want to put negativity behind me, I never want to see myself in that vicious little circle. It's such a horrible thing.

Made to Stick

For a book about making ideas stick I feel like very little has stuck with me. Though I know what was important because I highlighted it. Looking back the things I focussed on seem useful so it cannot be that this book is not very good. I simply feel it is over stuffed. There are too many stories and illustrations for my mind to cling to. All good stories and illustrations mind you, just too many. Before reading this book I thought repetition was something that helped an idea stick, but the book states otherwise. I had to sit and think on this, after all I use repetition myself. That was when it hit me, I use repetition yes, but for short term memory. It helps me for things such as tests and quizzes, but not in the long run. I need an idea that sticks so I will remember it, after all if I can't remember it why would the children that I teach? Simple has a negative connotation, when you think of simple in the church you do not think of the adult sermon. You think instead of what the children are learning. Simple is not, and should not be thought of like that. Instead of "dumbing" things down we should realize it is finding the core idea and give the idea quickly rather than draw it out. Not just for children, but also for adults. Ideas with profound compact meaning are seemingly the only important ones. You need to be able to pack a lot of meaning into a message. Much like the letter exercise, it was hard when the letters were gibberish, but easier when we could put meaning to them. For me it was like putting pictures to what I was supposed to remember instead of simply trying to recall the letters. Breaking a pattern is a great way to not only grab attention, but to make ideas stick. It leaves an imprint when you do something against the norm. Such as the "Enclave commercial" I can imagine watching the commercial as the book described it, shock and awe just picturing it. Curiosity is a great tool to utilize. From children to adults everyone has a natural curiosity that can be invoked. The book compared it to being a mystery, which is a great idea. Ask a question at the beginning, leave a few clues along the way, until you leave them with the solution. I am not saying this is an easy thing to do, but it can be very beneficial for you as the speaker and your audience to retain the information that you give them. Life for a novice and an expert are two totally different lives. They live and think so differently when it comes to their work. The novice sees concrete ideas as such, where as an expert can see things far more abstractly. Often times the two have a hard time communicating because a novice cannot comprehend all the words and ideas the expert may use. So how can we fix this? Bring the novices up to speed? Help them come to a middle ground? Oddly enough the answer is to bring the experts down. Details are important when you're presenting something. They give your ideas and presentation credibility. We love details as people, they make things relate more. If I talk about a ball, compared to talking about a tennis ball a person is more likely to remember the story about the tennis ball then the plain ball. They not only give you something to picture, but it can make a story more real. There are so many things we can do to get our ideas across. Many ideas can get across, but the goal is to make them stick. This book however I do not think this book was the best example of that. Instead of making things stick I received an information overload. In a sense the book was something not to do, simple was not there, details were there but overwhelming. I gained a few ways to make things stick, hopefully I will remember them.

Disney, Safety, and Anger

An odd combination no? Yet it's interestingly the one I find myself in tonight. Currently my father and older brother are home in California with my mom and younger brother. So they decided they were going to take a trip to Disneyland and enjoy three days of fun together. What does that have to do with me? Well Disney has always been a massive family event, none of us have gone without one another before, so I decided to ask for a sweatshirt from Disneyland for myself. We have been communicating mostly over text message because of all things we know Disneyland is the hardest place on earth to talk on the phone. Having just picked out what I think will be my birthday present (don't quote me on that) I now am working on a safety training exercise for my would be volunteers.

See the connection now? It's amazing all the ideas I have to incorporate into this project, it makes me wonder how many will in fact stay with me after this project is over. So I bet you're thinking the anger is tied in with my frustration toward trying to figure out what to keep and what to throw out right?

WRONG!

I see one of my friends hanging out with well...a bad influence...and I have no idea how to bring it up to her...time to pray for wisdom for the situation, or even still pray if I'm the one who is meant to speak to her. Sometimes we have to make our own mistakes (something I dread letting others do). I'm learning to accept this truth, even though I want to guard and save people from their hardships, sometimes I just need to let go and be there after the fact.

To Be Willing

I've been reflecting for a while now, just what does it mean to be willing? We have been told we will suffer for Christ. I understand that, but is that a willing suffering? Are we like Jesus in that way? In that we don't want to, but understand we need to? Or are we honestly willing? I know it isn't along the same lines, but I can't help but think of my Choralons concerts. At times my attitude fits both categories. Sometimes I come happy and able to sing my heart out for the people there. Though others I simply feel miserable, my heart isn't in it, but I sing because I know I have to (God often changes my heart in the midst of this, but my original attitude is what I am talking about). So what does it mean to be willing? Am I willing simply because I go? Or am I willing because I want to go? I think about Jesus when he asked God to take the burden from him, if it was God's will, yet soon after he came and died for us. He didn't flee, he didn't fight back, instead he scolded Peter for fighting and went peacefully with the guards to what he knew was his death. So I ask again, what does it mean to be willing?

Nitro Kids Conference

Liquid Nitro, my first Nitro experience, and if I have my way not the last. Hundreds of kids packed the sanctuary of Overlake. Among them was me and the two boys from my church. They gave me a good idea on what was grasping their attention and what was not. It was especially easy to find myself lost in the activities there, I almost forgot Nitro was for the kids. Worship was definitely a key part of Nitro, and I realize that Nitro is aimed at a 5th grade boy level, but I could not help but wonder if those younger grew bored after a while. The first night of worship I was in the back with my boys and watched as the many children near us were either sitting, or playing hide and seek among the chairs. It seemed the worship was good, for those who could worship that long, but the younger kids could only handle it for so long, including my 2nd graders who kept asking, "is it done yet?" The skit spoke volumes to all languages. It was jam packed with humor, entertainment, and a healthy amount of Biblical teaching. The kids were glued to the actors every moment they moved and every time they uttered a sound. Never once were the kids around me disruptive, they hardly made a noise the whole performance unless they were prodded to answer. Even afterwards my boys were talking about the skit and how much they remembered from it. They may not have directly seen Frank as the Jesus character, but they understood when the time came that they were meant to put their trust in God. The skit simply put that in another perspective for them. When Kevin Geer came out to speak he was always prepared. Both times I watched him I was nearly moved to my own response. He used two objects when he told his stories to the kids, a pair of handcuffs, and a life vest. While he told his personal story about losing the key to his handcuffs, his voice inflection changed. What once sounded like a calm voice simply having fun changed to terror as he spoke about losing the key. As I looked around I could see the fearful looks children had on their faces. Kevin was drawing them in. Even better was a simple phrase Kevin used twice, "I need everyone to look at me, this is important." and then he paused. Powerful, every child around me hushed. I felt no need to try and get my boys to listen because they were already staring straight at Kevin. Nitro was a tiring experience for us, a lot of adults might just wonder, what is the point of us doing Nitro? The point was that we were able to empower a group of young kids to go out and tell their friends about Jesus, the point was we allowed them to offer up their struggles to God. The point was we allowed them to experience God like never before.