One at a Time

Jesus didn't die on the cross for the mob. He didn't sacrifice everything to save an angry group of humanity screaming for His blood. No. Wrong.


Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, I'm a whiner, blah blah.

It's Thanksgiving week. Everyone is packing up their things to head home, making travel plans, drooling over daydreamed turkey/tofurkey, and cramming for those terrible tests all teachers spring on students before vacations of bliss.
I'm not packing. I'm not drooling, either. And I'm not cramming for tests. These are all things to be thankful for...right?


Nearly 15 weeks gone. Wow. Three weeks until Christmas break...


My friend Hannah, an SM in Chuuk, messaged today that someone stole her rose-colored glasses.

My rose-colored glasses are sliding down my nose, and I don't feel like pushing them up anymore.

But you're in Africa!, you say. That's so amazing!
Yes. Yes it is. But I don't get to share it with anyone.
Many times, a picnic lunch in the park with a handful of friends from home sounds a whole lot more enjoyable than a trip to the game park with loads of lions, cheetahs, and gazelles.


Iiiiii don't know. A case of the Thanksgiving blues, I think. And the cure is as elusive as a 7 year-old's sleep on Christmas morning.

But then...
I spend 2.5 hrs on four Physics problems, reworking them each time a new tutee arrives. I get to work with students one on one. I get to know the hamsters in their heads as they furiously spin the wheels of cognition. I get to watch their eyes light up as they comprehend what they believed incomprehensible. I get to know them as individuals.

And that's what makes life worthwhile.

Jesus didn't die on the cross for the mob. He didn't sacrifice everything to save an angry group of humanity screaming for His blood. No. Wrong.
Jesus died for individuals. He served individuals. He never required the sick and lame to queue up and take a number. "Go, blind man #249; your faith has healed you." "Little girl #391, I say to you, get up!" Nope.

Bartimaeus saw. Jairus' daughter lived.

Live life one person at a time, one day at a time. Jesus did.