Greetings Dear Reader,
Some of you may wish to curl up your toes hear. When I was still teaching I was actual told
that I could not tell and adult college student that he had failed a
class. I was instructed to tell the
student that he had “delayed success” in his English Composition effort.
This particular student had failed to attend two thirds of
the classes. He had failed to turn in
the weekly homework for the entire term.
He had failed to complete his term paper. He failed to tell the truth to his
instructor, my friend, when confronted numerous times about his deferment of
his success. I failed to be politically
correct with him.
I have seen bad teachers and my friend Katie is the opposite. She went above the requirements for every
student who showed the possibility of being successful. She did everything possible to make students
feel safe, capable, and motivated to avoid delaying success in her classes.
We fail sometimes. As
a school chair I did dismiss a teacher who told a student that she was a failure. That is mean and horrid. No one is “a failure.” Failing, however, is a part of the learning
process. You fail. You evaluate. You learn more and then you try
again. There are also some things some
students will never be able to accomplish.
They are not a failure but they will fail at some things always.
To me it is dangerous to teach others that the never
fail. It sets a state of mind that they
can do anything. There are things I
cannot do. I will never set a record for
the long jump. I fail at jumping most of
the time. Even puddles do not fear
me. They know that I will land in them.
We fail. We are a
fallen, flawed, and fractured species.
Without the understanding that we fail we may not see our greatest
failure. We may not understand that we
need something beyond ourselves for redemption.
If I do not acknowledge my failures then I will not see my need for
God.
I sin (we will visit this word a little further down the
path). I do not always follow Christ in
daily situations. When I fail to follow
in the moment that moment passes. I have
not delayed success. I have FAILED. I can still follow but the moment is gone and
will never return.
It is my responsibility to acknowledge that I fail to do
what is right at times and use that knowledge to learn, grow, and fail to fail
in the future. If I do not learn from my
failures then I will not follow Christ faithfully. If I do not embrace the full weight and
length of the coil of my sin then I will fail to be horrified by it. I will fail to see my depravity so that I
might fight against it. That would lead
to failing to follow which in turn would be the greatest failure of all.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
No comments:
Post a Comment