The Mary Syndrome

 The Mary Syndrome

I've met some of my favorite people on the planet during my trips to Vietnam, #10 of which commences on July 3rd. This is from August 6, 2014.

If you followed my trip to Vietnam on Facebook or my nightly e-mails, you probably recognize Ngan. An eight year old with a ten year old sister named Thuy, Ngan is absolutely adorable. She is precious in every way imaginable; smart, kind, funny and photogenic. If it seems like the two sisters were featured in my updates more than other folks, it's just because I was around them more. I stayed in a room where I put many hours in typing e-mails and posting photos and they wandered in and out ceaselessly, They were living in the church building/school with their cousins, most who are significantly older than the siblings. They love to play and I'm a big kid so it was a match made in heaven. Thuy begged me everyday to play basketball with them; she cannot easily make the ll sound so it came out like bon which also was incredibly cute. They would run ahead of me to the bottom of the stairs or before a door and make a spirit tunnel and give me the Vanna White treatment before I entered any space. They have no money so they made amazing cards and letters for me as I prepared to leave. They also don't have a great quantity of clothes so they are often dressed the same in pictures no matter the day. They are sisters so they fight; Thuy is considerably taller so she tended to have the upper hand. I really miss both of them and I had to remind myself while I was there of this: they aren't valuable because they are adorable. They are valuable because they are children of God and less attractive children are no less beautiful.

After lunch one day, I was typing on my daily report when Ngan came in and completely on her own, tidied up and organized my room. There was not much space for me to use so it was a tight fit. Ngan even took elaborate care folding and smoothing the Ziploc bags I use to carry shampoo, snacks, etc. It wasn't a big deal but then again, it was. In a world dominated by larger people, children have limited options for feeling useful and they need to feel useful. In Mark 14, Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, was criticized for pouring expensive perfume on Jesus. In verse 8, Jesus rebuked the complainers and praised Mary, saying, "She has done what she could." I'm not comparing what an eight year old child in Can Tho, Vietnam did in moving toothpaste and aspirin and a soap dish around to sacrificing a year's worth of wages, which is the value Judas put on Mary's gift, but is that far fetched? Both gave the maximum to honor someone else in the best way they knew how. I'm pretty sure Ngan knows I'm not Jesus but I was the nearest other person at the time.  Gifts like two pennies and washing feet were always big to the Savior and I'd like to think He's smile upon Ngan's efforts that day. What was it He said the kingdom of heaven is like? That's right- little children. I know one of them! 

Applicable quote of the day:
Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.
Dennis Prager

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Seven And Three Eighths

 

Seven And Three Eighths

 I used to have a Houston Astros hat but I gave it to my little buddy, Dat, fifteen summers ago in Vietnam. The following, from January 4, 2007, is about the only other piece of Astros equipment I have ever called my own.

I never know what to ask for in the way of Christmas presents. I have what I require although apparently others believe I am in desperate need of more ties and Starbucks' gift cards. When the time rolled around again this Christmas, I told my brother Dave and his gorgeous wife Sally that I could use a baseball hat. My supply is down to one NIKE hat and it is filthy. My preferences were either an Astro hat or a Yankee hat. Dave asked if I meant an official game hat or just one that uses the team logo while taking liberties with the dignity the head wear used to represent. Sadly, I have seen New York Yankee hats in both teal and pink shades. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig would blush if they could see what has become of the most famous insignia in American sport. I wanted the real thing and a fitted hat, not one with an adjustable band. A fitted hat doesn't fit everybody. It might be close on someone whose head closely resembles yours in circumference...but it won't be perfect. A baseball hat that fits just right is like an extension of your body. I told them I needed a size 7 3/8ths. Sure enough, on Christmas Eve, there was an Astro regulation baseball hat, size 7 3/8ths waiting for me from Dave and Sally. It was way too big. It slid down over my ears and my relatives laughed at me. Cap sizes are always a gamble. You would think sizes are consistent but they vary company to company. Years ago during a high school baseball tournament, the first base umpire, who owned a sporting goods store, told me how to shrink a hat 1/8th by wetting the inside band and putting it in the microwave for thirty seconds. Since then, I have shrunk many hats. Now, I simply put them in a bucket of hot water, let the hat dry, and repeat the process. It works like a charm! My Astro hat now fits my 7 3/8ths skull like a glove and I'm ready to be seen publicly.

We like things to fit. Repeatedly, we hear that the job is not a fit, the school is not a fit, the church is not a fit, the couple is not a fit. Maybe the problem is we aren't good at adapting or adjusting or being patient enough to let a situation that might be workable work itself out. The Bible uses illustrations of a potter with his material, the clay. To ever be effective, the clay has to change shape. It requires the willingness to bend and perhaps even get smaller. Becoming comfortable is a process. When I was playing high school basketball, I couldn't wait to get our new shoes for the year. My junior and senior years, we wore gold Converse. I would never practice in those Converse shoes before the first game. I would wear them around the house and break them in gently. By the time the opener came around, they were comfortable and they fit my feet perfectly. A perfect fit means we have to realize who we are. When the disciples of John the Baptist expressed jealousy over losing converts to Jesus, John replied, "he must become greater, I must become less." By acknowledging his loss of influence, John was better fitted for God's purpose and more useful in the kingdom. By shrinking 1/8th of a cap size, my Astro hat has made itself better fitted to me and thus more useful in my wardrobe. I wonder if John wore a 7 3/8ths?


Applicable quote of the day:
"Never wear a backward baseball cap to an interview unless applying for the job of umpire."
Dan Zevin


God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Friend Of Caesar

 

Friend Of Caesar

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I would like to remember the wonderful lady who taught me that ancient language, Latin. It printed originally in May of 2007.

Mrs. Nettleton died yesterday. I have a morbid confession to make. The first thing I look at when I visit my online hometown newspaper, the York News-Times, is the obituaries. She was there this morning. Ruth Nettleton was my Latin teacher at York High School. The obituary gave her age as one hundred one; I assumed she died years ago. Like most kids, I would have guessed Mrs. Nettleton was close to the century mark when I was in her classroom, thinking she babysat for Julius Caesar in his formative years. Upon leaving junior high, my folks strongly encouraged my taking two years of a foreign language in preparation for college. There were only two options; French and Latin. In retrospect, French could have helped me on my mission trip to Haiti, if I had retained any of it. But, the die was cast and it came up Latin. So, for my freshman and sophomore years, I sat at the feet of Mrs. Nettleton. She was a very nice lady who loved Latin. She was a very good teacher although it would be hard to prove based on my retention, consisting of the ability to count to ten just like men of Rome centuries ago. She was kind to me, even though I thought what she taught was a waste of my precious fourteen-fifteen-sixteen year old time. I skated through, content to get by with minimum effort. It was my loss.

We were cleaning up this afternoon in one of my classes after a period of counting pennies for our Honduras orphanage project. One of the boys was acting like a fourteen year old boy, which he just happens to be. One of the girls rolled her eyes and shook her head. She has no concept of how a young man can be so goofy. I understand; I walked in those tennis shoes a few decades ago. There was so much going on that went by without my comprehension just like it does with many teenage boys of this generation, maybe every generation. There is a Biblical definition of me at that awkward stage of development:
"I saw among the simple,
I noticed among the young men,
a youth who lacked judgment." (Proverbs 7:7)
Man, I missed alot. At some point, the light flickered on and I realized that I knew very little and so many people could teach me so much. Mrs. Nettleton belonged to that group but my opportunity passed. Tonight, I found several video clips of her on the Internet talking about farm life in Nebraska as a girl in the early twentieth century. It was obvious she had a wealth of wisdom to share and was eager to do so. Too bad I wasn't listening when I had the chance.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Potius sero quam numquam." (It's better late than never.)
Livy

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

A Gathering Of Adults

 

A Gathering Of Adults

One of the best weeks of the year is upon us! This is from May 7, 2008!
If you are in education, you know it's time for Teacher Appreciation Week! Our WCS family does a terrific job of making us feel wanted, from the PTO to the administration to the kids themselves. Businesses have special deals going on- free sandwiches for instructors tomorrow at Chik-Fil-A! Our staff will be treated to a terrific lunch of Friday by our parents, a tradition I love. I don't remember any of this going on when I was a kid or even in my early years of my career. You'll never hear me complain about this fairly new holiday!

I found an envelope on the wall outside my classroom door this afternoon. Inside was the note posted above. It was penned by a member in our National Honor Society and as an NHS alumnus, (York High School, York, Nebraska chapter), I was honored. Ordinarily, that would not in itself be the subject of one of my nightly treatises but it is because of the opening line which I have highlighted. You see, as a preface to delving into any mature subject matter in my five class periods, I always state, "We're all adults here......." It's the heads up from teacher to student that I expect them to handle what we discuss in the manner of someone who is older and more mature. I'm not sure when I began quoting myself several times per week but it  has slipped into the realm of tradition, which often has no well-defined point of origin. The point is that the kids get the point. 

One of the best known passages of scripture comes from Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:11 which defines the path of maturation:

When I was a child, I talked like a child,  I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

As I interact with every child K-12 in WCS with our Honduras-Haiti project, it's important to know my current audience. You don't speak to a five year old as you would an eighteen year old. Examples for seniors often are not fitting for first graders. Emotional and intellectual growth are processes as Paul  reminds us. So is spiritual growth, or at least it should be. It won't be long until these youngsters graduate into an ugly world, a world made ugly by many adults who inhabit the population. The soon to be grown ups are going to have to make big folks' decisions that will have repercussions in their family, their community, and their church. Hopefully, they will appreciate my treating them as quasi-equals someday. I absolutely already appreciate these nearly ninety kids entrusted to me. Several times a year, I ask, "What you would call me without you?" The answer? Unemployed. That's an adult thing to have to deal with.


Applicable quote of the day:
I was in high school, and when you get to be 14, 15, you start to feel a little more like your own person so that you can assert your adulthood a little bit.
Damien Chazelle

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Derby Day

 

Derby Day

This entry from May 6, 2018 is about one of my favorite songs!
I have a college friend, Bob Wisener, who is an acclaimed sports writer in Arkansas. Early yesterday, I saw on his Facebook page several posts from Louisville where he was covering the 144th Run For The Roses, better known as the Kentucky Derby. (SPOILER ALERT: Justify won if you didn't already know.) I'm not a racing fan myself. Two times cutting class and chapel at Harding University and consequently losing all the money I was carrying cured me of the gambling fever! Still, Bob's reminder of the biggest sporting event of the day brought back racing nostalgia but not the kind you might expect. It triggered a pleasant stroll down my musical memory lane.

While at Harding, due to the influences of those in my orbit of friends, I developed a liking for the music of Jerry Jeff Walker, probably best known for writing Mr. Bojangles and getting a shoutout in the chorus of Waylon Jenning's Luckenbach, Texas. One of my favorite Jerry Jeff compositions was Derby Day, a love song written to his wife, Susan. In the spoken introduction to the song,  Walker tells us that, "This here is Derby Day, written on the day of the Kentucky Derby when Foolish Pleasure lost..." I really liked the song since the day I heard it at Harding. Some thought this morning hit me to google Foolish Pleasure, who I had heard of, and find out why his loss was included in a song all those years ago. Surely, I reasoned, it must have been a major upset. Here's what I discovered when I did a little bit of digging. Foolish Pleasure actually did not lose the 1975 Kentucky Derby. Instead, he came from behind to defeat Avatar and Diablo with a time of 2:02.00. The rider that day was Jacinto Vasquez and Foolish Pleasure was trained by LeRoy Jolley. I found all that on the Internet.

Here's my thought for the day. I was wrong for decades about the winner of the major race in our country simply due to a few words on a forty year old album. The funny thing is the mistake doesn't even show up on the lyrics posted on the web- you have to hear them on the ninth track of the album, A Man Must Carry On. I have no idea why Jerry Jeff made the mistake that day. It was a live recording and perhaps it was such a good cut, they left it in. Maybe it was an inside joke. Maybe all of the musicians in the recording process believed Foolish Pleasure had lost. It doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter that I've been mistaken all these years. But it does bother me to think it might not be an isolated incident. From the time we're little, we take in information from all kind of sources and usually take it to be true. We're taught to trust parents, teachers, and adults in general, at least the ones our folks know. As we get older, some of the blinders come off and we begin to question some of the things presented to us. I've told outlandish things to classes and they accept it without blinking an eye. (I tell them the truth afterwards!) When we take quizzes, I challenge them to challenge me on what the scripture they just read says. I don't lose many of those but I want them to know they have to think for themselves and not be afraid to use the incredibly complex minds the Lord gave them. Keep reading, keep studying, and keep questioning. And maybe I just need to find a more reliable source to feed my sports' trivia addiction!

Applicable quote of the day:

"This is the day for anyone involved with horse. The dream is to win the Kentucky Derby, because there's nothing like it."
Billy Turner

To listen to Derby Day, copy/paste or click the link below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-P5HpEItG4

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Where Credit Is Due

 

Where Credit Is Due

Debt is an insidious master.  This entry, from April 29, 2007, is about paying off the car I owned at the time. WHAT A FEELING!

Tomorrow is a big day for me. Last week, my income tax return arrived via the mail, providing me with a nice spring bonus. Two days ago, I called the 1-800 number listed on my monthly bill from Toyota Financial Services and talked to Nick who relayed to me the exact amount of the buyout option on my 1999 Corolla. With my IRS refund safely deposited in the bank, I have enough to pay off my car seventeen months before its original due date. Tomorrow, I will make the final installment, saving a chunk of money in the process. According to Nick, the title will be in my hands within ten days of the check arriving in Dallas. When people ask me what kind of car I own, I tell them a Toyota. But in reality, it's the property of Toyota Financial Services. That's about to change.

I hate debt. The Toyota is the fourth car I have financed and I have despised every minute. I don't like owing anything to anybody but unless you are a millionaire, sometimes there is no option. I'm pretty sure I have paid each car off early but that interest eats you up. I'm happy that I have been able to pay off my debts quickly and not become a slave to the bank or the credit card company. But there's one debt I can never handle myself. My debt of sin is probably equivalent to the national deficit. I can't pay it off or work it off. Jesus told several parables in which unpayable debts were erased by a gracious master with compassion. My obligation was absorbed by the payment of blood, the only currency valuable enough to clear my account. On my coffee table is a little sign reading My Boss Is A Jewish Carpenter. That's catchy but I'd like to add Estate Planner to his job description. After all, he took care of my debt and arranged for my permanent retirement. I don't think I'll be needing that Toyota long-term.


Applicable quote of the day:
"Debt is the worst poverty."
Thomas Fuller


God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Musician

 

The Musician

I try to find out as much information about our students and I am always amazed at how little I actually know about the youngsters who reside in my classroom five times per week. The following, from 2006, is about a young man who I found I knew little about.

He was sitting in the upper school office right at the end of school this afternoon. Daniel, an eighth grader from Korea, had a instrument case on his lap. Our middle school American History instructor, Ruby Parker, requires each of her students to display a talent in her section on vaudeville. Some of the kids did skits or interpretive dance. Daniel played the violin. At the urging of several faculty members, he opened the case and played us a song. Actually, it was a piece by Bach. Chaul, one of my Chinese students and a senior, was standing there and, as a fellow violinist, identified the work for me. She told me Bach's compositions are difficult. From my non-existent musical expertise perspective, Daniel performed it flawlessly. I was blown away. As he concluded and we effusively praised him, I discovered Daniel is a student with perhaps the most prestigious violin teacher in Houston. Maybe he's the next Itzhak Perlman! At thirteen, Perlman won a talent competition in his native Israel, facilitating his studying at Julliard in the United States. From there, he has gone on to be what many consider the premier violinist of his generation. That journey sounds suspiciously like the one Daniel has embarked on. And I just thought he was another boy in my third period Bible class!

Teaching school gives me the chance to spend considerable time with good young people. Sometimes, we see them in a narrow slice of their lives. This afternoon, I saw Isa, one of my favorite all-time students, standing in the hallway. I didn't recognize her at first because she was not in her school uniform. She didn't look any different but her outfit wasn't WCS regulation gear which is how I have viewed her for three years. There is so much more to these kids than is readily apparent as they sit in front of me in wooden and metal desks. Two weeks ago, I found out that Brian, a student in Daniel's class, is one of the highest rated skiers in his age group in the country. Like Daniel, Brian is quiet in my presence and his exceptional talent went unnoticed by me. Jesus saw gifts in people that his contemporaries were blinded to. He saw a former demon possessed maniac as a missionary who could tell of God's great mercy. He gazed into the hearts of the sinful and saw faith where others only detected fault. He looked up in a tree and called down a tiny tax collector and labeled him a child of Abraham while Abraham's other sons called him a thief and a traitor. The Lord looks down on Daniel and beams at a young man with extraordinary musical gifts. Until today, I just saw an eighth grader who I wish would study just a little bit more. Today, I listened to Bach being brought to life on a violin and maybe, just maybe, I heard what Jesus sees.

Applicable quote of the day:

"I sounded like a thirteen year old with alot of promise."

Itzhak Perlman

God bless,

Steve

Luke 18:1