Another early morning get up for me as I face a pretty busy day but certainly not complaining. As I have gone through my FB wall in last couple of days, I have found it interesting at the many photos put up by parents sending their children off to a new school year and our two children are certainly no exception. I have enjoyed seeing all the photos but the process of sending children off to school after a long or short summer is a very defining moment in the lives of those children, those parents, those teachers, our world!
For me, while I still do not understand, as a new semester approaches launch, I find myself going into the super excited, adrenalin-driven state of anticipation. I remember that same "rush" before a big basketball game in high school and college or the few minutes before the birth of our children. I have often wondered why that sense becomes so real and almost overwhelming. My sleep need goes away for my mind will not shut off. My heart races with each new student enrollment notification and I have this giddy sense of feeling really excited about seeing "another one" choosing to take the journey. I take it as a personal lose when a student withdraws from a class and all of this before I have even met the student. Why is that I wonder!
See, a semester of courses for me begins about two weeks into the precious semester. The amount of mental preparation and work I invest into building a course, and each one is a new construction project for me, saps energy as my brain goes into hyper-drive in creating this Road map of work that will take the class down a pathway that is rich in learning, experiencing, affording opportunity to learn in a massive scale; that excites me and thus becomes a driver to get into a Word file a process of learning with is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional. Why? because the student is worth it for I realize more and more that I am getting the blessing of touching the lives of our future.
At sixty-four, I am ever reminded that I do have more years behind me than I do in front of me. Now that may sound weird but when that reality becomes evident, some will run from it but some embrace it and seek to maximize every moment. I am truly in category "B" for my life continues to fill with activities, interfaces and interventions with people be they a friend, a student, a jail inmate, a child, grandchild, wife, etc, etc. In other words, realizing more clearly than ever before that every breath is a blessing when you feel good and you find joy in what you are doing.
Those that know me know I have always found myself in a multi-faceted life style. Teaching, singing, counseling, living, etc, are all pieces and parts of my life and like I wrote a few weeks ago, the power of "I Get To" instead of "I Have To" creates a powerful force. With each passing day I find myself wanting to do more and more when stereotypically people think that now in retirement for almost a decade I should be relaxing 24/7; how boring is that?!
I LOVE the life I Get To live. Do I do too much? Probably! Do I glean a richer more satisfying value from the things in my life? On a scale I could have never imagined! See, I think I am probably a slow learner for it has taken me too much of my life to come to some real insight on this thing called life. One of the most integral elements about life I have learned via seeing it in my own life is that God gifts each of His children with certain talents. Some He may grant more than one. But more importantly, as you seek to live in God's Will for your life, part of that is seeking to fully utilize and maximize your gifts for His Glory. So that term "spiritual gifts" is very real and very tangible for I can stand on my own stack of days as testimony to that reality.
As the Fall semester begins finally to unfold, the energy and exhilaration I feel is energizing. It matters not the inordinate hours spent in building a semester of work, of selecting, communicating with and preparing the team leaders for the work ahead and then working directly with the nearly two hundred students I will work with in four classes. THAT IS SO EXCITING TO ME! Why? because I KNOW that be the end of the journey if the student will commit to the journey, carry their load, invest themselves into the work, a wealth and richness of learning will have taken place that will better posture each student for the headwinds of life; this I KNOW!
So my challenge to each of you, what is your spiritual gift for you have one more more? But more importantly, how are you mining that gift to touch, move, motivate and enrich others which is a far more important analysis for each of us. I love to see peoples' lives touched and changed through my teaching, my singing, my interface for in seeing that, I know God is blessing and rewarding the use of the gifts He has given me; it really is that simple but so rewarding and so powerful.
So getting the Nets Up is precursor to preparing the fields for planting, cultivating and harvesting in each and every life put before you. What a phenomenal blessing life becomes when you live long enough to realize this. So to my students, hang on for the journey is worth it IF YOU COMMIT to the journey. This will be a great semester I know for I know the NETS ARE UP! So now I get to watch, guide, direct, cheer lead the process as it now begins to unfold ... and yes, I am already thinking about the Spring semester with some new innovations to educate. Thank you God for the gift of teaching you gave me!
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