Another School Shooting?

Every time I hear of a shooting at, around, or near a school, my heart leaps in my chest.  My immediate thought goes to my children.  But not just my three boys.  I’m the principal of a small Christian school in Franklin. 

We have twenty students ranging from Kindergarten to 10^th grade.  Every time the news tells me of another shooting, those 20 faces go through my mind.  I find myself walking the halls of our school, peeking into classrooms, counting heads, testing outside doors to make sure that they are still locked.  I worry about these children, as if they were my own flesh and blood. 

When they miss a day because of sickness, I pray for their healing and recovery as it were one of my sons sick in bed.  When they are tardy, and we haven’t heard from their parents, I worry and have my wife reach out to them to make sure that they are okay. 

Do I worry about someone deciding to shoot up our school?  Sure.  Every single day.  So, what do I do?  Most every morning, I stand outside greeting the students as they are dropped off.  I look at their little faces to try to determine who’s having a bad morning.  I try to talk to those students just a little bit more than normal, to let them know that I care. 

Every afternoon, I stand outside and watch their parents come pick them up to make sure that the leave just as safely as they arrived.  Those students that had a rough day?  I normally talk with their parents to let them know—I’m not tattling, I just want the parents to know that I know what their student is going through. 

Do I think that this epidemic of violence against the most innocent portion of the population is entirely to blame on guns?  No.  Do I think it is entirely the fault of violent video games?  No.  Do I think it is entirely to blame of absentee parents?  No.   I think it’s a combination of all of these and more.

You’ve probably heard countless people say this “when I was a kid. . .”  and they normally go on to say how everything was better and it was always rainbows and lollipops when they were kids and there were no problems. 

My generation grew up with violent video games (remember the furor over Mortal Kombat?)  My generation grew up with working parents, we were probably the original latchkey kids.  My generation grew up with guns in the home.  Yet, we didn’t see these senseless acts of violence that we see all to frequently today.  Our problems were different.  Someone from my generation can most likely tell of someone in their class or the class behind them or ahead of them that committed suicide as a teen.  Someone my age can probably tell you of someone they went to school with who died while driving drunk.  Though the problems are different, the root causes may just be the same.

In our society, there is a definite lack of respect.  A respect for life.  A respect for a difference of opinion.  A respect for each other.  A respect for authority.  A respect for self.  Respect comes from an understanding that each of us has value.  Young, old, black, white, citizen, immigrant, poor, male, or female.  We all have value. 

Nothing in our society will change until we all see the value in each other.  That kid whom no one likes because he’s weird?  He has value.  The poor kid who doesn’t speak the best English?  He has value.  That girl who doesn’t fit in with the cool kids?  She has value.  That guy working two jobs to keep a roof over his children’s head?  He has value.  The mom who relies on government assistance to feed her children because she can’t work?  She has value. 

We want things to change?  Stricter gun control is just putting a bandaid on the situation.  So is arming teachers.  So is putting police officers in schools.  We need to treat the root cause of the problem to solve it.  We need to start teaching our children that everyone has value.  Everyone is worthy of our respect.  Not only do we need to teach this to our children, we need to live it in front of them.  Actions speak louder than words.   We need to start valuing the people around us, when we do so, they will start to see the value in themselves.  Then things may start to change for the better. 

Lessons from Running

 

Finishing my 3rd Half-Marathon

 

I’m training for a half-marathon.  If you do not know, a half-marathon is 13.1 miles.  I’ve ran 7 half-marathons before.  This will be the third post-cancer.  I’m excited about it.  Training for a half is probably what you think it is—a lot of running, three times a week you may see me out and about running around our town. 

You don’t start your training by running 13 miles at once.  Even though I have experience running half-marathons, I still start my training at the beginning.  Two miles one day, two and half the next time, and then a 5K on Saturday, building up to a 12-mile run just before the race.  This last weekend, I was scheduled to run 7 miles.  I typically get up early on Saturdays and run my long run.  However, this Saturday I was busy, so I could not run.  My fallback plan is early Sunday morning before church, however it was raining at a pretty good rate, so I did not feel safe running in those conditions (safety first, nothing ruins a training plan like a twisted ankle or getting hit by a car). 

Plan C was Sunday afternoon between services.  We came home from church, and fixed lunch.  After about an hour, I pulled on my running clothes (layers in winter, always layer) and laced up my shoes.  Remember, I’m typically a morning runner so this was out of my comfort zone. 

I had an amazing run.  Those 7 miles felt great.  That may be a foreign concept to you, but they really did.  The first couple of miles went by quickly.  I was breezing up hills and rolling right down them.  It was over before I realized 7 miles had past. 

This morning, I was slated to run 4 miles.  I got up early and set out on a familiar route.  I struggled.  The first mile was sluggish.  The second mile my legs were like “nah, I don’t think so.”  My breathing was ragged, and my heart rate was up higher than normal for a run.  Mile 3 was terrible and mile 4 was almost impossible.  But I finished the route. 

Immediately, I begin to think about the differences in the two runs.  My 7-mile run was much better than my 4-mile run.  You would think the opposite was true.  I begin to compare the differences.

•  In the 7-miler, my hydration was on point.  I sipped some water every 2-miles.  It was spot on.  This morning?  I didn’t even carry water with me. 
•  In the 7-miler, my nutrition was spot on.  A healthy lunch gave me the fuel I needed for the run.  This morning?  I didn’t eat anything before I left on the run.  It’s called breakfast for a reason (breaking your fast). 
•  In the 7-miler, my legs had been primed for a run.  I stretched before my run Sunday afternoon.  This morning, not so much.  A few toe touches and I was out of the driveway. 

You’d think that after training, running, and finishing 7 half-marathons, I would have theses simple keys to a successful run down pat.  But no, I made some simple mistakes that cost me later.  We can apply these same lessons to our spiritual walk with the Lord. 

Are you hydrated?  The scriptures tell us to be full of the Holy Ghost.  The scriptures also warn us about quenching the Spirit.  Do we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us or are we dried up, wore out Christians?  As I run, my body consumes water and I need to replenish it, if I don’t, my body begins to fatigue easier.  The scriptures remind us not to be weary in well doing. 

Is your nutrition, right?  Not only does my body consume water, but it consumes nutrients as well.  I was well fed before my 7-mile run—not a heavy meal, but a nutritious meal, half way through the 7-miler, I chewed some energy chews to resupply my body.  Spiritually, we need the Word of God to feed our souls.  We need good healthy meals and we need refills during the week.  This is the importance of our daily devotional life.  If you’re depending on your pastor to feed you during services, you’re going to starve the rest of the week. 

Are you primed to walk with the Lord?  Before starting any exercise regime (whether it be running or what not), you need to stretch.  Begin each day with a prayer time.  It doesn’t have to be long, it just needs to be effective.  Talking with the Lord will prime you to serve Him that day. 

Thursday, I’ll be running again.  This time my schedule will be for 5 miles.  You can rest assured that I will take advantage of the lessons I learned (again) this morning.