Find your IKIGAI

DON'T BE LIKE THIS GUY!  In an episode of Seinfeld, the infamous "show about nothing", the following exchange took place:

Kramer: You’re wasting your life.
George : I am not. What you call wasting, I call living. I’m living my life.
Kramer: OK, like what? No, tell me. Do you have a job?
George : No.
Kramer: You got money?
George : No.
Kramer: Do you have a woman?
George : No.
Kramer: Do you have any prospects?
George : No.
Kramer: You got anything on the horizon?
George : Uh, no.
Kramer: Do you have any conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning?
George : I like to get the Daily News.

A recent study in my small group Bible study posed the same same question "Why do you get up in the morning?"  Once I got past the shallow "Because my phone alarm went off" or "I like getting a pay check" responses, I realized this simple question is in many ways a profound one.  This question, often asked in job interviews, is asking about life purpose and motivation.  In a previous blog post, I argued that "passion" is really a question of what you are willing to die for; this question is asking what you are living for?

The Japanese language actually has a word for this phrase - IKIGAI.  It is really a compound word in Japanese - "living" and "worth", i.e. a life worth living.  As a mulled over this question,  I began to ask "What is my IKIGAI?  Why am I going to get up tomorrow morning?"

This train of thought led me to the book of Philippians where Paul clearly identifies his IKIGAI.  It quickly becomes clear that Paul's IKIGAI is bound up in his relationship with Christ.  Passages say that his imprisonment is for Christ (1:13), he wants to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ (1:27), he counts all thing loss for the sake of Christ (3:7), he strives to know Christ (3:10), he is pressing toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ (3:14).  But the clearest statement Paul makes of his IKIGAI, his reason for waking up in the morning, is found in the famous declaration in 1:21 - For to me to live is Christ!!

For Paul - by extension for every Christian - his IKIGAI was clear.  Every day is an opportunity to live our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ.  Romans 8:29 tells us we were saved to be conformed to the image of his Son. Ephesians 2:10 calls us God's masterpiece created for good works that he has ordained.  That is my IKIGAI - an opportunity to partner with God in conforming me into image of his son and serving him with those works he has ordained for me to do.

By God's grace, we hope to instill this same IKIGAI in a generation of students at HCA - students who understand their position in Christ and will become leaders in their world, living each day for the glory of Jesus Christ.

What reason do you have to get up tomorrow morning?

Balance and the Truth

"Balance is an offense to the truth."  That was the closing line of column written by a political science professor at Gettysburg College.  She was explaining her inability to provide a balanced discourse in her classroom during the current presidential campaign because, in her view, one of the candidates was so disqualified as to warrant a balanced presentation.  She concluded by saying: "My approach for the fall semester will be boldly honest: It is a disservice to students to attempt to provide balance when I know that balance is an offense to the truth."

My initial reaction to that statement was negative - a typical "tolerant" liberal expressing intolerance toward someone or some idea she doesn't agree with.  But I quickly realized that I didn't really disagree with that statement; I simply disagree with her misapplication of it.  In fact, I wholeheartedly agree that "balance is an offense to the truth."

The problem lies in an understanding of "truth."  In this case, I believe the professor was confusing a truth claim with a preference claim.  She made a strong and passionate case why she preferred one candidate over the other; she clearly views the possibility that this candidate could become President as loathsome.  But no matter how strong her opinions or how passionately she holds them, they still fall short of being a truth claim.  In fact, I would be surprised if this professor philosophically even holds to the existence of something called objective truth; in the post-modern world truth is a personal construct, something that differs from person to person.  For a post-modern, it is simply intellectually dishonest to suggest that anything is "the truth."

At HCA we strive to help our students discern the difference between truth claims and preference claims.  But to do that, you must first believe that objective truth exists.  For the Christian, that truth is found in the written Word (Jn 17:17 - "Your Word is truth.") and the Living Word (Jn 14:6 - "I am the way, the truth, and the life.")  It is in that context that I agree ... balance is an offense to the truth.  We don't present a "balanced" view of salvation; salvation is by grace through faith apart from meritorious works. (Eph 2:8-9)  And "there is no other name under heaven ... by which we must be saved."  (Acts 4:12)  It would be an offense to the truth to balance that message by saying there are multiple ways to be saved.  We don't present a "balanced" view of Scripture ... it is the inspired, inerrant, authoritative Word of God.  We don't balance that message by suggesting that there are other sources of authoritative truth.

In fact, the Five Solas of the Reformation affirm that "balance is an offense to the truth."

• Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone
• Sola Fide - Faith alone
• Sola Gratia - Grace alone
• Solus Christus - Christ alone
• Soli Deo Gloria - To the glory of God alone

May God "guide us into all the truth" (Jn 16:13) and may we reject "balance" that is an offense to that truth.

What Is Your Passion?

"The word 'passion' has been hijacked ... Misused and abused ... Emasculated by a feel-good culture of moral relativism ... Prostituted by personal development gurus.  Passion today is understood as 'what excites you, what puts the sparkle in your eyes, the twinkle in your toes.'  The word has become candy for frivolous children when, at its roots, it is meat for dedicated adults."

A few weeks ago as I was preparing to speak in our high school chapel on Biblical compassion, I came across a web posting that began with the words above.  In my presentation on "compassion", I noted that the word itself means "to suffer with" and denotes more than a feeling of sympathy; rather it carries with it a call to action.  Multiple times throughout the gospel accounts we see Jesus was "moved to compassion" closely followed by the action he took to relieve the suffering he saw.  We concluded that Biblical compassion mirrors Christ's example - it is a call to action.

Although there is scant evidence that the author of this website, Stephen Palmer,  identifies as a follower of Christ (in fact some elements elsewhere in his website would argue otherwise), he references Christ frequently and correctly notes that the word "passion" itself was likely coined in the 12th century by religious scholars to describe the sufferings of Christ on the cross. He describes Christ's passion as the "cross-carrying, torture-enduring suffering of a Man who understood how and why to sacrifice immediate pleasure for long-term joy."  He is so close to the truth - if he only understood that "joy" as described in Hebrews 12:1-2 is the joy of presenting his Bride before his Father.

Building on the "suffering" roots of the word passion he defines passion by quoting author Kevin Hall: “Even though it has become popular to define passion as deep or romantic love, the real meaning is being willing to suffer for what you love. When we discover what we are willing to pay a price for, we discover our life’s mission and purpose.”

Palmer concludes: If passion is simply what makes you happy, you’ll quit doing it when it gets tough, when it becomes too risky, when you’re ignored and mocked. Your true passion is -

• what you’re willing to do if it kills you.
• what you stick with even when it’s excruciating, when it’s risky.
• the things you do because you know they’re right; because you know they’ll make a profound difference.
• the things that simmer in the deepest parts of your soul — far beyond what’s fun or what feels good.

What is your passion?  What are you willing to suffer for?

The Parent Rap

https://www.rightnow.org/Content/illustration/102049

Link 

Vimeo

Love is Patient

Think Christian link

Francis underscores a love that is not linked to others conforming to my wishes. “Patience takes root when I recognize that other people also have a right to live in this world, just as they are,” he writes. “It does not matter if they hold me back, if they unsettle my plans, or annoy me by the way they act or think, or if they are not everything I want them to be. Love always has an aspect of deep compassion that leads to accepting the other person as part of this world, even when he or she acts differently than I would like.” Perhaps this is why interpreters find it so hard to slot the Pope into our categories of thinking. We’re used to assuming that disagreement entails deep division and derision, whereas Francis is often both firm in his doctrinal stance and kind in his pastoral approach. In this, he may be a model for all Christians of how to follow our Savior down a path that both confounds and attracts.

21st Century Skills

I recently came across an article from the World Economic Forum where they identified skills that are valued in the 21st century workforce. (Specific definitions of each of these 16 identified skills are listed in Appendix 1 in the linked article.)  The foundational literacies are the traditional core skills (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with an emphasis on application.  As our economy moves from an industrial production model toward an information technology model, the competencies become more and more important, eloquently articulated by Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind.  But I was primarily interested in the character qualities, asking myself how we, as a Christian school, can help develop those skills.

My mind went to a recent activity I was closely involved with here at HCA.  Mr. Russ Miller and I worked with a group of students and adult mentors who joined with 40+ other teams from a 4-state area in the First Technology Challenge robotics competition in late January.  This competition was the culmination of a process that began in September when the details of this year's competition were announced.  For the next 4 months, a dozen students and 6-7 adult mentors worked to design and build a robot to accomplish the various tasks presented in this competition.  Curiosity was demonstrated as the team discussed various strategies to score the most points.  Students showed initiative by stepping up to the challenge and taking on various elements of the task.  Failure is always are part of the process like this - Edison famously said, "I didn't fail a thousand times to create a light bulb; I was successful in finding 1,000 ways that didn't work."  When faced with a concept that didn't perform as expected, the team was forced to show grit (see previous post) to keep pursuing the goal and adaptability in finding new ways to accomplish the task.  It was a delight to see different students step up a various times during the process to assert leadership, accepting the challenge of a specific part of the task.  And of course, the social dynamic of a group of this size working together for four months required a keen sense of social awareness.

This is only one example of the type of activity that helps students develop these skills.  I could write a similar paragraph on an athletic team, the senior class ministering together on their missions trip, or a group of students preparing for a dramatic production.  The key is that these are all elements of lifelong learning.  In fact, I think you could make the case that those items listed in the 2nd and 3rd columns become more important as life goes on.  And at the end of the day, we want our students to be lifelong learners.

NOTE:  For the record, the rookie Charger Robotics team performed well enough to be chosen to be one of a dozen teams to move on from the qualification rounds to compete in the elimination round.

TRUE GRIT

In the 1969 movie True Grit, Mattie, on a mission of "justice" to avenge her father's death, recruits an ornery, one-eyed federal marshal named Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) because he has "true grit", a reputation for the ability to get the job done.  In the end (spoiler alert), they get their man with Mattie showing significant grit of her own.

I was recently reading a review of a book by Paul Stolz called Leadership GRIT: What New Research Reveals, a book that is now on my "wish list."  Stolz begins his book by defining leadership GRIT as "the capacity to get your team, or followers in general, to dig deep and do whatever it takes -- even sacrifice, struggle, and suffer -- to achieve their most worthy goals in the best ways."  I couldn't help but notice the similarity between this definition and the "grit" that Mattie was looking for in Rooster Cogburn.

Stolz identifies four dimensions of GRIT as follows:

• Growth - The propensity to seek and consider new ideas, additional alternatives, different approaches, and fresh perspectives.
• Resilience - The capacity to respond constructively to -- and ideally make good use of -- all kinds of adversity.
• Instinct - The gut-level capacity to pursue the right goals in the right way.
• Tenacity - The degree to which you persist, commit to, stick with, and relentlessly work at whatever you choose.

As I looked at this list, I couldn't help but notice that Christians should be uniquely qualified, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to demonstrate "true GRIT".  We are called to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18)  James calls us to "consider it all joy" when we are faced with adversity.  (James 1:2)  I recall one translation renders this "count trials as friends" because they are producing character in our lives.  The Christian replaces "gut-level capacity" with a reliance on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to direct us to the right goals.  Oswald Chambers defines tenacity as "endurance with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire."  This is Biblical hope, defined by John Piper as "a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future" - referred to by the writer of Hebrews as "the full assurance of hope." (Hebrews 6:11) - the hope that motivated the Apostle Paul to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

May God give us grace to graduate students with "true grit"! 

NOTE:  See this article which specifically addresses the "resilience" and "tenacity" elements of GRIT.

STEM-ing the Tide

A year ago in a post entitled Where Are the Future Leaders, I referenced a Cardus Education Survey 2011 which pointed to the success of evangelical Christian schools in developing and nurturing the future leaders of our churches.  The 2014 version of the Cardus report, Private Schools for the Public Good,  confirms those findings while shedding some light on the state of advanced math and science as well as STEM education in private schools.

This report, drawn from a representative sample of 1,500 American high school graduates between the ages of 24 and 39 (1993-2008 high school graduates), compares evangelical protestant, catholic, and private non-religious schools with public schools in a variety of measures.  Not surprising are the findings that the private school cohort performs well in every measure when compared with their public school counterparts.  However, there are several measures where evangelical private schools fall short when compared with their private school counterparts, primarily in courses in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) sector:

• Students are likely to take higher-level math and science courses
• Students indicate interest in science and math after graduation
• High school math classes increase students' interest in math
• High school prepared students well for success in math or science courses in college or university
• Advanced degrees earned (an area which showed improvement from the 2011 survey)
• Professional or science occupation
• Management or professional occupation

This report does not prescribe a course of action; its stated goal is to "uncover differences that may be instructive for improving all schools."  The data doesn't provide the "why", but in its analysis, the Cardus report suggests a couple of things that may be in play here.

First, in noting the tendency of evangelical protestant graduates to choose "human service careers" such as social work, health care, education or vocational Christian ministry, the authors suggest that these graduates "may not be be interested in professional, science, and management positions because they may view such work to less consistent with a religious calling."  If that is truly the case, then evangelicals are teaching a limited view of calling.  It is certainly commendable that Christian schools are successful in encouraging involvement in ministry related careers, but a call to a STEM related field is as much a "religious calling" as another other profession.  Martin Luther addressed this very topic several hundred years ago:

“The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone.”

At HCA, we have developed an annual Winterim program where we take four days in January to specifically focus on the subject of calling.  We believe that the creation mandate to "subdue the earth" is a broadbased call for Christ-followers to be leaders in every part of the labor force.  Like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, we want our students to "feel God's pleasure" when they are following his calling on their lives.

A second area of concerned raised by the authors of the Cardus Report, is the potential existence of a "structural reason" for a lack of opportunity for students in evangelical schools, including lack of sufficient funding and difficulty in attracting science teachers.  Again, HCA has addressed those concerns.  Two years ago we began to develop at path to a STEM diploma which included a new Introduction to STEM Topics, offering the PLTW course curriculum (the ONLY private school in the Kansas City area to do so), and involvement in extracurricular STEM activities such as the recently concluded FTC competition in Kansas City.  HCA has made a significant budgetary commitment toward this effort and we have benefited from the generous support of several individuals and corporations in this effort.  To support this initiative, HCA has been blessed to be able to assemble a formidable lineup of passionate, qualified science and math teachers.

By God's grace, HCA will continue to "STEM the tide".

Team Charger Has Successful Rookie Season in FTC Competition

At Heritage Christian Academy we recently completed their first season competing in the FTC division of FIRST Robotics.  Our season began in September when the 2015-16 FTC game, iResQ, was announced nationally.  With that announcement, our team of 12 students in grades7-12 and 7 adult mentors began meeting weekly (and soon multiple times each week) to begin the process of designing and building our robot to compete in a qualifying tournament in early 2016.  Multiple prototypes were designed, tested, and ultimately discarded before settling on our final design in early December.  We spent the remaining weeks testing and refining this design before heading to our January 30th competition.

On January 30th we arrived early in the morning at UMKC with 44 other teams from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.  In the morning we had our robot inspected for compliance to rules, met with FTC judges, and collaborated with other teams with whom we would be allied in actual competition.  Shortly after noon, the qualifying matches began.  At the conclusion of those matches, the top four teams in each of two divisions were allowed to invite other teams to be in their alliance for the elimination rounds.  Team Charger was excited to be one of those teams selected, largely because we had demonstrated that we were one of 4-5 teams in the entire competition capable of securing the maximum number of points by handing our robot from the "mountain."

Unfortunately, our final alliance was eliminated from the competition, but the students left with their appetites whetted and ready to tackle a new challenge next year.