Power in Weakness

Ah, Christmas time. That time of the year when parents lie to their children about Santa Clause and celebrities expressively sing traditional carols with no apparent acknowledgment of their deeply theological and exclusively Christocentric meaning. What could be better?    Well, maybe Baby Jesus is better. Another one of the hallmarks of this season is the celebration of the "Christmas story," of Jesus Christ being born to Mary. The truth of God becoming a human forever is, to be sure, a profound and essential part of the central gospel message. The fact that the Christmas season gives room to shine a light on this is no small thing. I'm grateful, and I think as Christians we should "make the most of every opportunity" (Colossians 4:5) to talk about what God has done.     That said, I've been thinking about the proliferation of "Baby Jesus Culture" during our Christmas weeks. Again, it is so much better than, say, Vampire and Witch Culture during

In that moment, I've never wished more that I had paid attention in high school Spanish. Because no one in the whole room spoke English. And I was supposed to teach them.     High school Spanish...was kind of a joke to me. To the constant annoyance of my teachers, I persisted in saying every Spanish word as dry, white, and gringo-y as possible and barely put in enough effort to pass. What I did expend effort on, however, was learning Spanish cuss words and inappropriate phrases, which I even slipped into class presentations from time to time. So even though I was shocked when my teacher finally kicked me and my friend Derek out of her class halfway through my senior year, probably no one else was. We had it coming.     Fast forward x number of years, all the way to last Friday. I took a sub job for a "Spanish" class. No big deal--I've subbed for dozens of high school Spanish classes. They're full of kids that are mostly like I was (perhaps slightly more motiva

One of the benefits of being in a different classroom almost every weekday is being exposed to different teaching strategies, classroom atmospheres...and classic books that I don't own!    In an English classroom 4 weeks ago I pressed "play" on Audible.com's And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie in a class full of freshmen in high school. It was soon clear that, while none of the students appeared especially interested, one substitute teacher was raptured into the intriguing storyline so much that he had to finish the book himself over the course of the next 3 days. I don't usually read crime novels, but this book (boldly endorsed as "the world's most beloved mystery novel" on the back cover) was so compelling that I devoured it as fast as possible, bringing it to an eerie conclusion throughout Halloween week.     Fast forward 2 weeks later and once again I found myself flipping through another English teacher's copy of Brave New World

I understand my blog has been dormant for more than a short while, and I know this is an odd and even uncharacteristic topic for me to broach at all, much less as the subject of my re-inauguration post. But blogging again has been on my mind for awhile, as has this topic, so without overthinking why I would begin again with such a weird and often controversial topic, why not spout off some simplistic and haphazard answers to a deep and complex issue?      But first, since this blog is about 10% autobiography, and knowing where someone is coming from is always helpful when discussing important matters: where have I been for the last two years?      Last time I posted I was recently married and working full time as a 6th grade English teacher at St. Paul's School. My 2.5 years at St. Paul's were so many things: rich, rewarding, challenging, educational...and extremely exhausting. I put in my resignation in Spring of 2018 because I believed God was calling me elsewhere. But I so