As if summer school was not enough, I found myself spending the rest of my summer lesson planning and grading papers as a teacher at my church's summer camp. After spending an intense six weeks with very intellectual and profound minds, I found myself face-to-face with third graders. While I had the luxury of learning from some great scholars and professors, I was now the one to instill some knowledge into the these seven/eight-year-olds. Needless to say, it was an experience like no other. I was prepared to be strict and lay down the law; I was ready with creative ways to discipline and rebuke; I was ready to be THAT teacher that they will never forget. I will argue that I did teach these children something but to be honest, I think they were the ones who taught me. I did not expect to see them grow in the span of the month that I was there; I did not expect to have a personal relationship with each one of the children; I did not expect to fall completely in love with my class and see God working so clearly in the lives of the children. These kids were so transparent and so eager to learn. They are not at that age yet where they had a full-fleshed attitude but they definitely had some of the craziest personalities. They were the first to get upset but also the first to forgive. They sympathized with each other and encouraged each other. They loved each other like their own brothers and sisters. They have a curiosity and an eagerness like no other. They are filled with questions and anticipation to learn. They were also some of the most honest kids I've met. They admit their wrong almost instantly and accept punishment with understanding and reflection. It was amazing to see how pure and how simple their hearts were. This idea of having child-like faith is something we all say but not something we see often. It is such a beautiful and humbling thing to see these kids so full of energy and joy. They literally are mini-adults... with slightly large heads but so full of life. God has opened my heart to these children and showed me His heart for His children. As a father would teach his children, I had the opportunity to teach these children this summer, but more so, I had the opportunity to love these children the same way that God loves His. It was such a joy to see God working in every little detail of every single day and in every single one of the children. Every child was a blessing and it was truly a learning experience that I will never forget.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Summer of 2015: Summer School
Unlike
most college kids, my freshmen year didn't really end with a big sigh of
relief. If anything, it was just enough time for me to catch my breath and
continue running. The first part of my summer was just me in summer
school.
While there are many reasons for people to take summer school, I took it because... well... I actually don't know. I just went online one day and signed up for classes. It felt like a whim and I never really took the time to ask myself why I felt the need to take summer classes. But I did and here I am now, rather excited to go back to school.
I took two classes over the summer: Modern Philosophy and Rhetoric.
Here are some things that I realized about Philosophy:
1) Even from the very beginning, philosophers were trying prove the existence of God.
2) Proofs for the existences of God were never as satisfying or convincing as I hoped for.
3) So what was the point?
During the entire class, I felt rather disappointed that no one had a convincing proof for God. The only thing that I was sure of after this class was that something exists somewhere that does things that we might or might not know about. That wasn't good enough. I was half expecting to read more about philosophers who gave a proof for no God, but I was not expecting a whole course of philosophers with proofs for God and to feel less convinced that God actually exists. God just seems to be this idea that people tack on at the end of their proof when they can no longer explain certain things. God seems to be the thing that conveniently fills all the void that our human limitations can never reach. Although some proved logical, none proved God to the satisfaction of believers and non-believers alike. So that got me thinking... What was the point? Why were solid proofs for God not convincing? How else can we convince people of God's existence, if he even exist at all?
That unfortunately is a question for another post. I have yet to answer that question to the extent that I feel is comprehensive. (Feel free to comment if you want to take a stab at it.)
The second class I took was a rhetoric class and there was only one thing that I took away from the class... which also only tangentially relevant. Near the end of the class, my professor shared with us the moment that he became an atheist. He was raised Catholic and one day, sitting in his room with a book open in front of him, he came to the conclusion that he did not believe in God. How he came to that conclusion is his personal story but that was his conclusion and from that day on, he was an atheist. The shocking part of the story is what he said after. He said that if there is no God ... then all we have ... is each other. From then he changed his life to advocate on many social issues in order to bring justice to those people... to all people. I was taken back by his story because I had such a misconstrued idea of what an atheist was like. They quite possibly have the biggest heart for the people of this world because these people are all that they can be certain of. This world is all that they know and care about, and they will be the first to stand for social change and bettering the lives of other people. So where does that put me?
Again, I have no answer yet to these questions. I don't know my standing yet on many social issues. But one thing I know for sure... once you add God into this equation, everything changes.Welp! That is all that I have for this post. I will try to answer those questions that I could not answer in a later post but until then...
While there are many reasons for people to take summer school, I took it because... well... I actually don't know. I just went online one day and signed up for classes. It felt like a whim and I never really took the time to ask myself why I felt the need to take summer classes. But I did and here I am now, rather excited to go back to school.
I took two classes over the summer: Modern Philosophy and Rhetoric.
Here are some things that I realized about Philosophy:
1) Even from the very beginning, philosophers were trying prove the existence of God.
2) Proofs for the existences of God were never as satisfying or convincing as I hoped for.
3) So what was the point?
During the entire class, I felt rather disappointed that no one had a convincing proof for God. The only thing that I was sure of after this class was that something exists somewhere that does things that we might or might not know about. That wasn't good enough. I was half expecting to read more about philosophers who gave a proof for no God, but I was not expecting a whole course of philosophers with proofs for God and to feel less convinced that God actually exists. God just seems to be this idea that people tack on at the end of their proof when they can no longer explain certain things. God seems to be the thing that conveniently fills all the void that our human limitations can never reach. Although some proved logical, none proved God to the satisfaction of believers and non-believers alike. So that got me thinking... What was the point? Why were solid proofs for God not convincing? How else can we convince people of God's existence, if he even exist at all?
That unfortunately is a question for another post. I have yet to answer that question to the extent that I feel is comprehensive. (Feel free to comment if you want to take a stab at it.)
The second class I took was a rhetoric class and there was only one thing that I took away from the class... which also only tangentially relevant. Near the end of the class, my professor shared with us the moment that he became an atheist. He was raised Catholic and one day, sitting in his room with a book open in front of him, he came to the conclusion that he did not believe in God. How he came to that conclusion is his personal story but that was his conclusion and from that day on, he was an atheist. The shocking part of the story is what he said after. He said that if there is no God ... then all we have ... is each other. From then he changed his life to advocate on many social issues in order to bring justice to those people... to all people. I was taken back by his story because I had such a misconstrued idea of what an atheist was like. They quite possibly have the biggest heart for the people of this world because these people are all that they can be certain of. This world is all that they know and care about, and they will be the first to stand for social change and bettering the lives of other people. So where does that put me?
Again, I have no answer yet to these questions. I don't know my standing yet on many social issues. But one thing I know for sure... once you add God into this equation, everything changes.Welp! That is all that I have for this post. I will try to answer those questions that I could not answer in a later post but until then...
-Charlie
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