the light of our barbaric yawp

i love to teach. i love to stir the souls of others, to see them rise up and journey into a life of transformation. my job offers countless satisfying joys; coffee dates, ice cream dates, coaching cross country, attending abundant extra-curricula's, mentoring, sharing in hurts, praying, art... but perhaps the greatest facet of my position as a youth leader is being a teacher. i pray that youth ministry within a church is an avenue that i will travel for years and years to come, but if it may not be; then i pray that i can minister to the lives of youth as a teacher...an english teacher to be more exact.

on sunday's we have been taking our students through a series called "SHAPE". it is a season of learning who it is that god created us to be and how he uniquely designed us as his sons and daughters. this sunday i will be speaking on our intricate SHAPES and how they are to be used in a way that blesses the community around us.

gary haugen, the founder of IJM once quoted, "what is god's plan for making the world believe that he is good? we are god's plan. and he doesn't have another one". what an unnervingly outrageous truth. what will the world look like if we actually embraced this fact and began living it out loud? when jesus says "come. follow me. do as i do. love as i love"and we actually drop our nets and receive his command, the transformation of grace will inevitably take place and the world will see that god is good. the life of the disciple is to live the light of truth. we are to illuminate the hearts of others so that they are able to gaze upon the face of christ so that in turn, they will illuminate the hearts of others, and those others will illuminate the hearts of others, and they too will illuminate, and so on until one day every nation is lit by the lantern of grace.

dead poets society is my favorite film of all time. i secretly desire to be mr. keating (the teacher played by robin williams) and inspire students to live lives of boldness and confidence. throughout the film mr. keating radiates in his position as an english teacher; a role you can clearly see he is deeply passionate about.

this is the kind of teacher i long to be for my students. this is the kind of disciple i hope to be. i desire to live as a woman of god who inspires others to see their very own barbaric yawps. to make the world believe that god is good, we must first invite the world to see that the human race is also good, and in this goodness, we are the image of christ.