I'm Back!

i've decided to continue posting here on a not so regular basis. i would post on mine and karen's blog, but that makes it hard for people to keep up with the postings. that will be our "family blog," and this will still be my blog. i went back and started reading some of my previous posts and i wanted to continue posting here.

Just a recap of life's events since my last post...
- got the sentra fixed!
- in a month and a half, spent $6000 on car repairs for both cars...ouch.
- finished up internship at Mountain Lake and am playing there regularly
- started school at Snellville Middle
- currently teach at Norcross High School. go blue devils!
- engrossed in Auburn football.

i think that about sums it all up. i hope i haven't driven every one away...

peace.

doing the adult thing...

so Karen and i are combining our blogs. i will post occasionally here, but most of my thoughts can now be found at:

kbisbell.blogspot.com

so check it out. Karen is a much better writer than i, and she actually knows what she's talking about most of the time.

make your move, Lord...

i sat in on "meeting" with the upcoming seniors in our student ministry. david was inviting them to be a large part of the summer service, "fuze." it turned into a vision casting. and the students who were there grabbed hold of the vision.

God is getting ready to move in this city. we could feel it. He is going to use the student ministry in unheard of ways. i'm getting chill bumps just writing about it. you could see it on everyone's face. adults, students, everyone. God is planning something big. i can't wait...

Ha ha....Funny, God...

I had one of those moments today. One of those moments that you just have to step back and laugh. when you realize that God can have a strange sense of humor.

we've been having issues with a Nissan Sentra that we bought about 9 months ago. what started as a "minimal" issue ($550) quickly grew to semi-not-unbearable ($1750), then finally rounding out at "holy crap! that's half the cost of the car!" ($4000) in the span of about 4 days. i got that call today from the mechanic. at first, as you can imagine, i went into panic mode and almost had a breakdown...only to have time to cool off and think rationally about the situation. "God's got it. He's bigger than my car problems...we still have a great car (Pathfinder) that works..."

I walk out of school to get in my car only to find that i have a flat tire. i don't know if it was nerves, or sheer irony, or what, but i just started laughing.

"Thanks, Dad."

teach by grace

i was sitting in a meeting last week. nothing exciting, just a normal weekly CAT meeting with all the other connections teachers. the topic of our dress code came up, which is a touchy subject around here. i work in Snellville, GA, and just by driving through the city, you can see the culture that is alive here. the thing we fight the most is saggy pants. it is the style of the day for the young men to sag their pants below their butts at times. this is against our dress code. it is inappropriate and honestly, the students who do this look like thugs. so this is what we are discussing in our meeting.

i work with several older generation teachers, some of which are on their way to retirement. it is my impression that these teachers are the "strict disciplinarian" type teachers who are used to keeping students "under their thumb." of course they were ranting and raving about the current trend of the saggy pants and the blatant disregard for rules the students show by sagging. i started thinking about how the students respond to these teachers and their discipline tactics. i also thought about my first nine weeks, and how i tried to use this disciplinary approach. the students did't respond to this. in talking to one of my eighth grade classes (one of my worst to date) about the discipline at our school. i asked them if there was any consequence at our school that they "feared." their answer was a resounding no. they don't care if they get suspended, because they get to make up the work when they get back. they don't care about referrals, because those only lead to suspensions. they don't care about conduct cuts because those only lead to referrals. do you see why they don't care? no "real" consequence. so i changed my approach to discipline: i began to give grace.

i no longer give conduct cuts and referrals. if there is a situation that i must deal with, i talk to the student about it. this builds relationships. the relationship builds respect. it's my belief that the paradigm of our students is changing. the days of stern discipline procedures, i believe, are gone. students don't respond to that. they clam up and shut you out. (some students will do this anyway, but you can't win 'em all.) i have found that students respond really well to this approach. students are actually talking to me about things other than health stuff. i had a student stop me in the hall yesterday to tell me he was being panelled, which means he might be expelled from school for a year. this is one of my "at-risk" students who i initally started my grace approach with. he doesn't talk to any teacher other than to make a smart aleck comment or something. i got to talk to this student about the decision he made that led him to his panel. all brought about by a relationship built through grace.

i wondered if the "staunch disciplinarian" paradigm will ever disappear as the student populus changes. we'll see...

church at starbucks?

starbucks has it right. i went into one this morning on my way to school. karen wasn't feeling well, and a white chocolate mocha always helps her feel better. it was really busy in there this morning, and i sank into my normal impatient state. but looking past my disgruntled state of mind, i began to pick up on something: everyone knew each other. Customers, baristas, everyone. they cam in, got in line, and began talking to all the other people in the store. the lady behind me to the lady in front of me: "they must be selling gold in here, because it's never this busy!"

lady in front of me: "i know. i know i'm late when it's this busy. how was your Valentines's day, Jill?"

"it was great! the kids make it better. you know the kids, right?"

and this carried on the entire time we were in line. then i started noticing the exchanges between the customers and the baristas. it was the same thing. asking about the kids, how the week had been going, and calling each other by name.

after i got back in the car and dove into the decadent beverage that is a white chocolate mocha, i began to think: what makes stabucks the giant among coffee companies? drive through any major city and you'll see one on every block, sometimes even closer together than that. and it's not overkill. that many are needed to sustain the demand. what is driving this company to dwarf all other coffee companies (besides the fact that America runs on coffee and is addicted to the caffeine)? why are people choosing starbucks over every other store. then it hit me.

community.

each starbuck is like its own little family. the baristas know the customers. not just their faces, but their stories. the customers know each other. and their families.

in talking to a friend of mine that works at a starbucks, i've learned that this is starbucks' intent. they hire baristas who are personable and will get to know their customers. i've seena poster in a starbucks bathroom that had several different blurbs by baristas talking about some of their regular customers. so why is this appealing?

people need a place to belong. a place where, as the "Cheers" song says, "everybody knows your name." there is an inate longing in each of us to have a place to call home away from home. where people accept you where you are. God himself even had this in the Trinity. starbucks is that place by design.

as i processed this thought, i wondered why so many churches miss this when a secular COFFEE COMPANY is using the idea to perfection. i then took it a little further. what would our middle and high schools look like if the teachers cared enough to cultivate this kind of idea into the regular curriculum? how much different would our youth look with a place they belong AT SCHOOL? i am praying that God will continue to cultivate this thought in me as i interact with my middle schoolers. who better to give a place to belong than a "searching for who i am" middle schooler?

well, at least they could find it in starbucks.

"...nothing good comes from Nazareth!"

the words of Nathanael in response to Phillip telling him that "they had found Jesus of Nazeareth, the one the prophets wrot about." this gives me the impression that Nazareth was like a modern day ghetto. a place where no good came from. whereno one wanted to be.

how cool is it that this is where our Savior is from? the ghetto! the place of common people. the place of no good. thank you Jesus, for making yourself accessible for common folk.

where'd everybody go?

i guess i did it to myself, but no one looks at my blog anymore. no comments. it's very sad. but i guess that's what happens when you blog twice a year or so. leave a comment to boost my morale.

pink eye

i woke up this morning with pink eye. i haven't had that since i was little. i must admit...it's pretty miseable. i feel like i've been punched in the eye, i look like i haven't slept in a month my eye is so red, and i am constantly wiping green goop from my eye. i don't remember having this when i was little, but i can't imagine how much it had to have sucked. if it sucks this bad at 23, it must feel like the end of the world to a 8 year old.

boo for pink eye.