deliberate musings

Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity apart from him. . . . Most people think of sin primarily as “breaking divine rules,” but Kierkegaard knows that the very first of the Ten Commandments is to “have no other gods before me.” So, according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your worship to God.

- Tim Keller

…the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

- James 3:17-18

Sir Ken Robinson on the rigid conformity/compliance of standardized curricula and standardized testing (e.g. No Child Left Behind):
On the supposed epidemic of ADHD:

“If you set kids down hour after hour and have them do low-grade clerical work, don’t be surprised if they start to fidget”.

On the educational culture that demands compliance at the expense of individualized learning and creativity:

“The dominant culture of education does not focus on teaching and learning, but on testing … Education doesn’t go on in legislative buildings, it happens in classrooms and schools; the people who do it are the teachers and the students, and if you remove their discretion, it stops working”.

Invest 19 minutes for this re-post-worthy link:

A look back to look ahead…

Lloyd: I’ll bet you twenty bucks I can get you gambling before the end of the day!
Harry: No way!
Lloyd: I’ll give you three to one odds.
Harry: No.
Lloyd: Five to one.
Harry: No.
Lloyd: Ten to one?
Harry: You’re on!
Lloyd: I’m gonna get ya!
Harry: Nuh uh!
Lloyd: I don’t know how, but I’m gonna get ya.

Great kids come from families in which parents are real about their shortcomings. They come from families who live and believe in grace … How honest are you being with the people around you? Do you fear being human? Do your kids fear being human?

READ THE WHOLE POST HERE.

‘Single (& negative) stories create stereotypes.’

‘Stereotypes are incomplete truths that rob people of dignity.’

‘Stories can be used to empower and humanize.’

What single stories have you bought into?

Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.
- Proverbs 15:32

On this day in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at 6:01pm in Memphis Tennessee by James Earl Ray. As you might be aware, the night before his passing, King gave his famous Mountain Top Speech. FYI, the “Mountain Top” is significant since King was making a callback to Moses & the Exodus in Deuteronomy 34:4 where Moses only saw the promised land, but didn’t enter with people of Israel, which now seems like an eerily prophetic forecast of what would come the next morning:

We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.

So, this you might understand why this clip puts a shiver in my spine.

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”

– Martin Luther

Professor Gerald Unks has been teaching at UNC – Chapel Hill for more than four decades, instructing 24,000 students. He’s had multiple generations of students take his most popular course, Education in American Society.

As he continues his 44th year at UNC, he looks back on his time at the front of the classroom.

The Legend Behind the Lectern from Jon Kasbe on Vimeo.