The Corner Of Clean Hands And Pure Hearts

The following is a look at another time when I tried to take seriously the health of our student body. It's  from August 30, 2009. (In an unrelated bit of trivia, in the second picture, there is a girl in a white shirt holding a blue notebook. Her name is Emily and I preached her wedding!)

In previous entries, I've mentioned that I stand at the confluence of our upstairs halls at then end of the school day and say good-bye to the students. I try to call out each young person's name that I know- I'm still learning the new ones- and give high fives or slap hands. With the start of the new year, I've added a new feature: hand sanitizer. We still are semi-worried about swine flu as are schools around the world since educational institutions are seen as breeding grounds for H1N1. In response, I have taken it upon myself to declare our hallways a Swine Flu Free Zone. I simply hold out a bottle of sanitizer and the kids come by and get a few drops. Most of them choose to take advantage of the opportunity to leave school or go to an athletic practice a bit more hygienic. This may all seem silly to you but I have re-established contact with kids I no longer have in class and made contact with some students new to our school. It's funny- influenza is spread through human contact and so is Christianity. The longer I teach, the more I'm convinced my effectiveness in telling the story of Jesus is intertwined with making connections with teenagers. I'm trying to do that one drop at a time. The Scriptures link clean hands and pure hearts as vital in the search for God. We're working on the hands; we just need to find something for the heart. It would help if it comes in a bottle.

Applicable quote of the day:
"God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones."
Publilius Syrus

*Thanks to Robbie Miller for the pictures!*

God bless,

Steve (Mister Purell)

Luke 18:1

www.hawleybooks.com

E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com