Devotional Material

Let not many of you become teachers…

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Sorry for the (extreme) delay in posting anything here. I haven’t given this blog much thought this semester since I have entered the “real” world of the teacher. But I have spent all this time thinking about how my experience of teaching could lead to some really excellent and in depth posts. So here it goes. Here is my deep insight into professional education:

Teaching is hard. Period.

While I have enjoyed building relationships with students and getting a chance to attempt a subtle integration of theology and mathematics, the last few months have really left me more frustrated than satisfied and with more questions than answers.

So I thought I would use this space to throw out some questions. They aren’t easy questions so I don’t expect them to have easy answers. But if there are any experienced educators out there, I would love to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. How do you get kids excited about a subject that they generally dislike and you genuinely adore when the school mandated curriculum bores you to the point that your own interest in the subject is strained?

2. How do you instill an attitude in students that desires success when the prevailing atmosphere (school wide) is one of deep apathy toward education? (To give you an idea of where I’m coming from: Whenever I pass out an exam without fail the first question I get, before the the students have even looked at the test, is ‘When can we do test corrections?’)

3. While I see my job as a ministry (or at least that’s what I have to remind myself on those difficult days), I still wonder how do you balance the time and effort you put into teaching with the time and effort that God requires of you in your marriage, in other relationships, and in local church involvement?

Beauty and Math

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“The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.”

– G.H. Hardy

Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.

Fairest Lord Jesus, performed by Chris Rice

More to come on the relationship between beauty, faith, and mathematics…

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

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Father, Thank You for Hope

Matthew 28:5-6

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said.”

Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Charles Wesley, 1739)

Christ, the Lord, is risen today
Sons of men and angels say
Raise your joys and triumphs high
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply

Lives again our glorious King
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once He died our souls to save
Where thy victory, O grave?

Soar we now where Christ hath led
Following our exalted Head
Made like Him, like Him we rise
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies

Alleluia!

1 Peter 1:18-21

You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed– not by perishable things like silver or gold, but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake.  Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

1 Corinthians 15

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you– unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received– that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures…

Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.