THE SMILE
The moment I stepped out of my condominium building at 6:05 last night, I was greeted by an unexpected cosmic beauty- my eyes gravitated towards the unique sight in the sky. The guard at the condo said, "Sir, tonight is a good night to propose to a girl! You will never be turned down, you have the approval of the heavens with a sweet smile!"
I have never seen the sky smile that way. The sweet smile was so cute I couldn't take off my eyes off it as I walked to the Promenade where I was going to wait for some family members for dinner. I was so fascinated with the sight that on the steps of the Greenhills Promenade with my turkey sandwich and Greek salad on my lap I sat together with a number of other fascinated people. The phenomenon eventually generated conversations among ourselves. Astronomers later named Venus and Jupiter to have consisted the "eyes" and a crescent moon coming together. So they say, this sends a message of happiness to Earth. It was amazing!
This morning in Chapel Service at Faith Bible College, the amazing Psalm 19 was read as a call to worship. As we stood to read, my mind kept racing to the beautiful sight last night.
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
night after night they display knowledge.
where their voice is not heard.
THE FROWN
Since the beginning of the semester, I have tried my best to prepare for each class meeting of the Worship Studies class. Reading ahead, keeping informed, enjoying new learnings-- such occupied my head and heart on days and hours when I'm done with stuff related to my ministry in the local church.
I have said at very the onset that the first half of the semester will involve a lot of reading because we need to study theology and history of liturgy designed to make students understand why churches do what they do. In short, we need to study the reasons behind our practices.
Given my nature and as a way to be understanding of my students situation-- being busy with so much paperwork required in their other classes, I decided not to give any written assignments for them to submit each class metting. All I wanted them to do was read and learn on their own and be prepared for the discussion in class. And to make things a lot easier for them, I printed a hand-out for them to read.
This morning in class, my class saw me FROWN for the first time since the semester began for about 10 seconds, and then my face turned stern. The stern face pretty much loomed over the entire class 'til it was dismissed. The discernible disappointment kept the class clinging to their pens and notebooks to anchor them from wave after wave of disappointed looks from the adjunct professor.
What caused the frown to appear? you ask. Well, I asked a question and saw the entire class flipping page after page over the hand-out I gave them hoping they'd find the asnwer to my question. The problem is, the answer is in the hand-out! And it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the students were groping over every page to find the answer that I expected them to already know had they read the hand-out!
I couldn't help but speak of the farce I observed them doing-- flipping pages trying to look smart. I think the class realized my disappointment when I made some comments concerning the "stupid questions" they asked-- questions they do not have to ask if they only read the hand-out. What made me want to flip all the more was when I got the excuse "Sorry sir, but we were too busy to read." Seeing that that comment even made my facial muscles contract all the more-- a combination of smile and frown, one student said, "We're really sorry, sir, we failed to read."
We went on with the discussion all through that gloomy atmosphere until I dismissed the class.
On my way to GCF, I kept thinking of grace, and how I should deal with each student with it. God deals with us with grace. I am reminded of Jeremiah's thoughts in Lamentations 3:22-23, Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. That's how the Lord wants me to deal with each student just the way God deals with me.
But as a way to put grace at work, I have also decided to change the set-up of the class by not giving away hand-outs, re-structure the class discussion, give pop quizes, and have them read on their own. Maybe I expected way too much from them and treated them on a graduate/masteral level. But they're not like that just yet. They need to be treated at the elementary level. But even that is a struggle for me because these people are supposed to be maturing people training to become leaders of evangelical churches.
Some people have yet to learn the value of education. They must learn that now otherwise, I'm afraid that the irresponsibility they display in school might be carried on to their professional ministry in the future and that is not good!
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