Until 7pm last night, the highlight of my day had been my Excel 08 workshop. Good thing Ravi Zacharias and Stuart McAlister rolled into town. Dr. Zacharias and Mr. McAlister gave stimulating talks to a full audience. Zacharias' erudition is a sheer pleasure to experience. His vocabulary and the range of his quotations is fun. Their world view is so reassuring because it runs parallel with mine (haha): thoughts such as "ideas have consequences" and "the logic of unforgiveness". The speeches had an almost deceptive fluidity-- the marks of adroit wordsmiths. Moreover, their intellectual prowess is in service of a God and Church they obviously love rather than mental gymnastics. No place would I have rather been last night. Plus, I snagged really good seats-- the perfect neighbors for this kind of evening.
Today was Career Day at my middle school. An acquaintance came to introduce them to Urban Design. He did a great job: a solid presentation with lots of pictures, lots of information and ideas, and a fun drawing exercise. Apparently, he wasn't as cool as the police man with a Tazer or as sexy as the fireman or as nice as the hairstylist who gave out free shampoo samples, but the kids enjoyed him and stayed engaged. This is no mean feat with 7th graders. Unfortunately, the kid I most had in mind when I invited the UD guy was suspended for breaking a another kid's nose. This kid, alleged nose-breaker, loves to draw and is crazy keen, but he has a temper and a cruddy home life. C'est la vie. God is in control. I just had to ignore the pettiness among the 7th grade teachers throughout the Career Day; I think spending years with 7th graders has worn off on them (note to self). Within twenty minutes, they changed the schedule twice.
I'm excited about my lesson plans for the next couple of days: poetry, paragraphs, African masks and symbolism. Unfortunately, interims go out tomorrow as well. I hate all the administration that goes along with teaching. I don't think I'd mind the grading if my classes were around twenty. Today they were around 20 due to suspensions and illness.
Thursday night I'm busy from 5-9:30pm, Friday I'm catching Beethoven's Fifth at 8pm in the Blumenthal and Saturday I'm chatting up "Life Together" at 10am. There's no rest (or exercise) for the weary. Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, and I need to plan my Lent strategy. What do I give up and what do I add? Reading Bonhoeffer really underlined the importance of Scripture to the health of a Christian as did Zacharias. Hmm. I tend to get overzealous with my Lent proposals so I need to pick attainable and edifying. Self-discipline in my life is service to the church according to Dietrich. Fair enough. Now, I'm off to grade, record grades, watch ACC basketball and finish up my homework for my small group.
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