When Students Become Their Teacher's Heroes

I'm feeling a lot of peace and good will this Christmas season, especially since my cell phone provider sent me a little happy birthday note today...never mind the fact that its not my birthday.

"Dear NSA agent spying on my blog, Please tell Straight Talk that their birthday greeting was a neat little PR ploy that failed. I'm not going to feel loved until one of their customer service agents from India gets on the phone and sings Happy Birthday to me IN ENGLISH!"

In all reality I've been thinking about heroes. The stories of the real heroes among us simply don't get told enough. I hear more stories about who won the last volleyball tournament, shot the biggest buck, or has the nicest car than anything else. When was the last time you walked up to a group of young people after church in time to hear them saying, "...sheesh...DUDE...did you see the way  _(enter name)_ was freaking loving people last week...man...that was INSANE the way he...."

I hate to break it to you boys, but anybody can become an amazing volleyball player. Give me six months and I could be playing with the best of you, but I know that it will take a whole blasted lifetime AND the help of Jesus to weed the selfishness out of my heart. In that light I would like to tell you a story of incredible disregard for self.

I once had a student that really enjoyed photography. As a young girl she longed for a good SLR camera. After saving her hard earned pennies for some time, she was finally able to purchase the quality camera she always wanted. If I understand things correctly she is now employed in some type of photography work (at least part time). I know how important her camera is to her.

In spite of how much her camera means to her, she recently gifted it, lock stock and barrel, to a place of need. I know she could have sold this camera for several hundred dollars, but throwing "great stewardship," good business values, and profit motive to the wind, she got nothing in return. I am not the recipient of the gift, but I know the recipient and the giver. I understand the giver felt God asking her to give her camera away...so she did. That's Kingdom values and Kingdom economics at work folks. 

As a teacher, there is nothing that makes me more proud than hearing stories of students doing "Full Bore Kingdom Living" (FBKL). I'm both convicted and inspired...inspired to live by the same set of values that cause people to give when it makes no worldly sense and to love a category of people that the world tells us we should ultimately hate/kill.

Sometimes students become their teacher's heroes!