The Basis

 

The Basis

This is about one of my favorite movies. It's from August 1, 2013.
I'm not real big on watching movies, especially since the demise of the video stores like Blockbuster. There are two times, however, when I do avail myself of cinema. One is when I'm at my brother Scott's house at Christmas and Thanksgiving. Scott and his wife Karen are big movie watchers and we usually catch some flicks over the holidays. Last winter, it was Hunger Games. The other time I find myself in front of a screen watching a movie is when I'm flying to and fro on my mission trips to China and Vietnam. For instance, on my recent mission in Can Tho, I had six flights totaling approximately 45 hours. That's a great deal of time to spend in front of a entertainment console!

I saw several movies this trip but one was clearly my favorite. On the way over, I watched The Sapphires, a 2012 film from Australia, and re-watched large portions of it on the way home. The Sapphires  is the story of four Aboriginal girls who sing together from the time they are little. The girls, three sisters and their cousin, grow into lovely young women who end up on a leap of faith touring Vietnam and singing for the troops. It's a tale of family and danger and overcoming prejudice and includes the culture and music of the times. I knew from the opening scene that this was a film based in fact. When I got to Vietnam, I even watched several of the scenes on youtube, including my favorite one posted here, set at a talent contest where the girls sing, of all things, Merle Haggard's Today, I Started Loving You Again.  I even looked the movie up on Google, wanting to know more about the actual family and see what they looked like, which is a trait of a good movie. That's when I found out the truth.

 
You see, at the beginning of the family, there was this statement:
Based on a true story!
Sometimes, films change the wording just a bit:
Inspired by a true story!
Honestly, The Sapphires was such an enjoyable movie to me that I thought it had to have remained true to the history. And it did.....sort of. The movie was taken from a play written by Tony Briggs whose mother was one of the group. But the four girls were two sisters and two cousins, not three sisters and a cousin. Perhaps the main character in the movie, the girls' manager, Dave Lovelace, was fictional and how the young ladies turned to soul music from country and western is also made up. And only two of the four girls actually went to Vietnam a the other two were against the war. After I had read the Wikipedia article, I was disappointed because the portrayal I accepted as accurate wasn't really. And I liked it so much I wanted it to be. It doesn't take away from the movie and the fact that it was written by a family member kind of makes it more palatable. Still, I'm left with a bit of sadness and maybe that's just silly.

Based on a true story! 
You know, sometimes I wonder if that isn't how we as believers live our lives. We call ourselves by the title of the Messiah who freed us from sin and gives us eternal life. But, often, we are not the accurate portrayal of His life and teachings that we should be. Like The Sapphires, we remain true to the Jesus' story.....sort of. Oh, we might still be recognizable as followers but we fall far short of the emulation to which we are called. The good news is that He loves us anyway, in spite of our character flaws. Well, if my life is going to mirror the movie, I probably will be requesting that Brad Pitt reprise the role of Steve. After all, we're dealing with accuracy issues.

To watch The Sapphires sing Today, I Started Loving You Again, click or copy/paste the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zl1FcN_q0E

Applicable quote of the day:

"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

Mark Twain

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Work In Progress

 Work In Progress

One of the benefits of my job is that I can always improve! This is from June 12, 2013.
I like to read stuff that challenges me in the arena of righteousness. Currently, I get a devotional delivered to my e-mail each morning from A.W. Tozer, one of my dad's favorite Christian writers, and some of the better ones make me uncomfortable. Like many of you, I'm partial to authors like Oswald Chambers and C.S. Lewis, even though I have to re-read many of the passages to try to comprehend their intent. (Just a thought- would I sell more books if I went by my initials? Would S.W. Hawley be more prolific in the sales department than plain old Steve?) I need to be pushed spiritually and these guys have that gift. Maybe I should say had as all of them have passed from this earth.

But sometimes, we get caught up with believing that deep and complicated are always synonyms. They aren't. That's one thing I love about teaching our little kids in basketball camp. We break it down into the simplest terms imaginable and it's amazing how effective teaching is when you reduce it to the most elemental skills and movements. For a long time, I've loved the childrens' hymn, He's Still Working On Me, which goes as follows:


CHORUS:

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

1. There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

CHORUS:

2. In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

CHORUS:

I love how the author, Joel Hemphill, ties in Creation with the unfinished product that is me. In my heart, that is profound. I heard or read somewhere this week that the only part of God's Creation that does not work as intended at the Beginning is mankind- you and me. And yet, Our Heavenly Father refuses to chalk us up as lost causes or eternal mistakes. I must have listened to this song seven or eight times this week and it gives me comfort where sometimes Tozer or Lewis or Chambers do not. That's a blessing of being called Child of God.; we can have the faith of those who have yet to become jaded. And we have in our corners the only One who really matters.

To see and hear my favorite version of He's Still Working On Me, please copy and paste this link below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYV2ZvZFMo0

Applicable quote of the day:
“We do not turn from our false gods to become God's children. We turn from them because we are.”
Kelly Minter

God bless,
Steve (or S.W.)
Luke 18:1

My Cup Runneth Over

 My Cup Runneth Over

My father and I shared many common traits but our tastes often differed. The following highlights one of our differences. This entry is from July 7, 2006.

I'm an early morning coffee drinker and so is my dad. However, that's where the similarities end. Dad makes his java a 50/50 blend of regular and decaf. I like my overly strong. Dad likes to grind the coffee beans himself and prefers certain brands. I buy whatever is cheapest in the most bulk. Dad likes his morning brew steaming. Sometimes when I wake up, I simply drink mine cold, right out of the pot from the previous day. We compromise when I'm in St. Louis. I buy my own can of coffee and make it as strong as I please the night before. I pour it into a big Thermos so I have it whenever I want it. Dad has the timer set on his Mr. Coffee so it starts his pot percolating before he wakes up. He drinks his unique blend and I drink mine. We get along great.

All of us see arguing constantly in the dimensions of our worlds. I see it in the kids in my school and on rare occasions with the people I work with. Most of the disputes are over issues as inconsequential as the strength of a pot of coffee. The topic is rarely of importance or based on an interpretation of morality. In 1st Corinthians 6, Paul is addressing the dilemma of lawsuits in the church. Presumably these court cases were of some weighty matter but Paul's advice in verse 7 is, "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" If that is sound advice for something that could be brought to trial, would it not apply much more to minor disagreements? Once an argument commences, it takes on its own existence and it has the ability to lead to destinations that are difficult to return from . Proverbs 17:14 lays out some timeless advice for genial relationships with those we interact with on a daily basis:
"Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out."
Sounds easy in print but a struggle to implement. At the moment dissent starts to rear its ugly head, I have a great suggestion- have a cup of coffee!

Applicable quote of the day:
"Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis- a good hot cup of coffee."
Alexander King

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

How Change Has Changed

 How Change Has Changed

This is even more true today! It's from May 18, 2017.

Today was the last day of school of what has been an incredibly fast year. As I was walking through our elementary playground yesterday afternoon, third grader Keith asked me if he could still bring his Honduras bottle to me in the morning. SURE! I'll always take change for the little ones in Haiti and Honduras! We are completing our 19th year of collecting at WCS- my guess is we are in the $160,000 range for a total in the close to two decades we have done this. I added an incentive this year for our students. Anyone who turned in their bank bottle could guess how much I collected, shown in the mayonnaise jar above. The winner was junior Isaiah Alonzo who came closest to the $25.20 and won ten dollars! We are about 95% finished with the count. My estimation is that we will be between 7 and 8,000 dollars. We still have some coming in, like Keith, so it's inexact but I am a pretty good calculator. That's what nineteen years does for you!

Here's something that's been trending for several years now in this project: we don't get as much as we did in the early years when we were over $10,000 on a couple of occasions, even breaking $12,00 once. There were some advantages we had back then. One is that it was brand new and more exciting- now the kids know we are always going to be doing this work every spring. Another plus was that many families turned in large piggy banks with years' worth of pennies/nickels/dimes/quarters gathering dust but those became rarer and rarer as their kids ascended the grade ladder. I've tried to figure out ways to maximize our efforts and by all measures, we do a better job than we did at first, just without the numbers to back it up. But I think I'm starting to get a little smarter due to several interviews I've heard on the radio on the topic of our becoming a cashless society. What I now think is that with the astronomical growth of debit and credit cards, there simply is not as much change as there was in the past. I should have clued in as I seem to be the increasingly isolated customer at the store who pays with cash and is rewarded with metal currency for the difference. Maybe we are getting just as high a percentage of the change available in our school. Maybe there's just a smaller supply to draw from.

The go-to story on giving in the Bible is always the widow who put two small copper coins in the temple treasury as related in  both Mark 12 and Luke 21. Jesus remarked the anonymous woman gave out of her poverty in contrast to the other worshipers who contributed from their wealth. He relates how she gave all she had to live on. That's the one thing I don't like about online giving. (Disclaimer: I am in the mental deliberations to add it as my bank is now starting to charge me for checks!) You lose the visual giving  example for little ones. I always saw folks putting in money in the collection plate as a child and it has stuck with me. We were required to put part of our allowance in the weekly contribution and believe me, it was never green and paper. But the economy has changed, pardon the pun, and I have yet to figure out how to deal with it in this aspect of my work. It's still worth it- children in need are being helped- but the human prideful side of me feels less adequate. Maybe that's the point of what Jesus was saying, though. It's not the amount- it's the intent. Our kids no doubt have that intent. Not one of them ever asks our grand total. That's the question the grownups ask. As usual the little ones are closer to the truth. Penny for your thoughts?

Applicable quote of the day:

If for some reason you are unsure where to go, all you have to do is stand there looking lost, and within seconds a helpful New Yorker will approach to see if you have any "spare" change.
Dave Barry

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Final Day

 Final Day

II love and hate graduation. This is from from May 23, 2013.
Today was my least favorite day of the year, the last day of school. I don't really enjoy the first day- too chaotic- but I love almost everything else from mid-August to late May. Oh, we still have graduation tomorrow but it's a separate event. We still have a teachers' luncheon tomorrow and I've got a checklist to complete and turn in but there won't be kids there and a school without kids is nothing. For some reason, I'm more nostalgic this May than usual. It might be that I had my favorite basketball team in the fifteen years I've been here or one of my all-time favorite classes, eighth period Gospels. I know this- after today, there are some kids I will never see again and that makes me sad. 

Schools  have their own cultures and traditions and WCS is no different. There are two songs I always start thinking about this time of year and both are youtubed (is that a word?) above. You see, at the end of every year there is graduation and senior chapel complete with videos of the kids and shots of the year.......and these two songs invariably are part of the production. They are as much a part of the season to me as Pomp And Circumstance only with lyrics. I think it's interesting that the Green Day anthem, Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life),  was written as a breaking up song and not tied to caps and gowns; still, it's a good fit. One of the main reasons I moved to Houston in the summer of 1998 was the commencement exercise I witnessed when I came to interview. It was unlike any graduation ceremony I'd ever attended and that was part of the allure. I'll miss these seniors like I miss the ones from last year and the ones from the Class of 2011 and on and on. Only a few of them were in my class this year but I've taught many of them before. There will be tears shed tomorrow night and hugs and promises to stay in touch....and then it's on to the next reality. The cycle begins again immediately and that's the way it should be. You reach a certain stage and it's time to move on. The memories of each senior will vary- some were here from pre-K and some just came this year. Tomorrow night, they'll receive a diploma and a Bible. One proves where they've been, the other illuminates the journey they hopefully have embarked upon. Jesus talks about two roads, the narrow and the wide, and how only a minority find the former. As best as we could, we've made the case for the narrow; time will tell if that seed has taken root.

Applicable quote of the day:

"Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you'll make a difference."  Arie Pencovici To watch and listen to Graduation (Friends Forever), copy and paste or click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foyAOoVagWw To watch and listen to Good Riddance, copy and paste or click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnQ8N1KacJc God bless, Steve Luke 18:1

The Book

 The Book

We take the Word of God for granted but not everyone else is  the world does. This is from May 20, 2017.

Another school year is history, my 19th at WCS. Graduation was last night at HBU and it was a great one with excellent valedictory and salutatory addresses and one of the best commencement speeches I've ever heard from Joel Cowley,  the CEO of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. While I'm always ready for the break, and I have an incredibly busy summer ahead, I do get nostalgic when it's officially in the books. Last night, Jean, my wonderful teacher's aide, graduated and so did Roseline, my terrific middle school basketball player. I miss them already. There will be new kids next August but as always, something undefinable will be missing.

The past week was set aside for finals, with semester exams given Monday through Thursday. Bible tests were on Monday so I, with very little sleep, was able to grade and submit results by Wednesday morning. Like all instructors, I also proctored three finals but that is a simple task. I was exempt from proctoring the only final scheduled for Thursday morning, the last testing of the 2016-2017 school year which kicked off back on August 11th. I was finishing up little odds and ends on a checklist that has to be completed before we get paid- mainly inventory and straightening up stuff- when one of my international students walked in. He explained he had no exam but was waiting for a classmate and asked if he could sit in my classroom. No problem! I was in and out of the room and doing little things like taking down a bulletin board and pulling staples out of the wall. Truthfully, I forgot he was there. But I saw him with a book opened and asked what he was reading. He told me it was the Bible. I asked what he was reading in the Bible. He told me Coach O (Kenneth Okwuonu) had told me about a king who threw three guys in a fire.... and they didn't die! We talked a bit about the story of Shadrach/Meshach/Abednego, something we didn't cover in his Gospels' class. I think he was surprised I knew about the trio. We talked a little about my reading the Bible through each year. He told me when he knew he was coming to a Christian school in the US, he tried to find a Bible in bookstores in his country but could not. He was also blocked trying to read it online. I told him how I gave my Bible to a military officer in his country one summer on a mission trip. (Actually, it was the school's property, a LaGard Smith Narrated Bible I used in teaching but my superior was understanding.) And it has occurred to me that this young man is the only student I saw all year reading his Bible when he didn't have to.

The availability of the Bible in the western world is something we take for granted. There were always Bibles in our house. There are always Bibles in the pews in our houses of worship. We can pull it up on our laptops or phones or any electronic device it seems. But that is by no means a universal privilege. I think we take freedom of religion for granted, having known nothing else in our lifetime. We love quoting, and we should, Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path." But not everyone can easily access that lamp and light in their country of origin. Along with their diplomas last night, each of our seniors received a personalized Bible from the elders of my congregation. I think for many of our American kids it will be one of many Bibles in their possession, although a special and sentimental one due to the occasion. But to our students from other nations, it might well have added significance, like a treasure in a field. I would say that's a pretty good field of study. But they have to find it first and it's my job to help them do so. There's some pretty good stuff hidden there!


Applicable quote of the day:
The Bible is filled with intriguing stories about complex and flawed human beings who ponder immense moral questions and engage in colossal clashes with evil.
David Harsanyi

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Key

 The Key

My students think I am very sloppy.... and I am about some things. I have my own mental organization system but I often misplace things, particularly my wallet and keys. The following is about one of those frequent occasions. This is from October 1, 2006. (PS: It contains the funniest quote I've ever used in the applicable quote of the day section!) 

I had an emergency Friday. During my planning period, I was to do a presentation for one of our kindergarten classes. Amy, a five year old whirlwind, keeps bringing in money for our project to help orphans in Honduras. Susan Jones, Amy's teacher, asked if I could bring her one of the little wooden crosses I pick up each July on my mission trip and make a big deal of her good example. More than happy to oblige, I went to my desk to get the key which opens the cabinet where the crosses are stored. It wasn't in my desk. My student aide and I tore up my classroom in a vain effort to locate the key, which usually resides in the tray inside my desk drawer. We arrived late to the kindergarten class and apologized, not just for tardiness but also for reneging on a promise. Losing the key was a big deal. That cabinet is a very important piece of furniture in Room 258. Besides the crosses, it holds loose change for the Honduran children, copies of my book to sell, and all the financial records from the book sales. I realize I'm not John Grisham or Tom Clancy when it comes to sales (YET!) but to maintain a working relationship with the IRS, that blue wooden cabinet is vital. All it took to shut down my operation was the misplacing of one small piece of metal. I'm not very smart. It wasn't on a key chain so losing it was relatively easy. Fortunately, the key was recovered yesterday in a shirt pocket at the bottom of a stack of dirty clothes. The next step would have meant breaking the lock, rendering the cabinet much less valuable. I will never lose that key again, but I have eaten those words on multiple occasions.

Keys cause me problems. If I'm not losing them, I can't figure out which one opens which door. There are keys on my key chain that don't open anything that I'm aware of. I should mark my keys and get rid of the extra ones but like I mentioned earlier, I'm not that brilliant. A key isn't the issue. The correct key is the issue. On Friday, I tried a key they had in the office simply because it looked like mine. Of course, it was ineffective as I was sure it would be but we try anything when we are desperate. My key chain is non-descript but tomorrow, I am eliminating excess keys and sliding the remainders onto my new Adidas key chain, compliments of Ayramis Glenn. Hopefully, I will become more efficient and not relive last week's incident. My collection isn't imposing, just keys from school, my apartment, and my Toyota. If you want to see an impressive set, check out these keys listed in the Scriptures:
-the key to salvation, wisdom, and knowledge (Isaiah 33:6)
-the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19)
-the key to knowledge (Luke 11:52)
-the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:8)
-the key of David (Revelation 3:7)
-the key to the Abyss (Revelation 20:1)
Talk about your Biblical key chain! How big would that ring have to be? It's interesting that there is a lock that must be opened to both the places we dream of going and the locales we dread facing. Maybe death/Hades/the Abyss are locked for my safety. I'm glad those keys are in the care of someone who won't lose them! I have enough trouble with my one ounce cabinet key.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Looks like you lost the keys to the clue-mobile!"
Martin Poulter

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1