Feeling G-OLD.

Conventional wisdom is that "the benefits don't outweigh the tradeoffs" associated with growing older.

True enough.

But IF, through that process, one discovers tenderness, that...is a "state of being" more precious than gold.

Feeling old?  Try a little tenderness.  Make it GRACE.


bN tGit

Seen NOT heard.

"This So Called Love" by MercyMe

I can be there for you when it can't get much harder

I can cover your head when life starts to rain

I can hold on tight when you feel like you're falling

I can bread crumb the path when you've lost your way

I can make you laugh when the whole world is crying

I can build you up when you're broken in shame.

But if all that we do is absent of Jesus,

     then this so called love, is completely in vain...

Absence makes the heart grow harder.

Sometimes, God's children should be seen and not heard. Followers of Messiah Jesus, let's walk the Walk in 2016.

bN tGit

Race to...just about average.

Education in America, and educators are in trouble. 

By any reasonable measure, what we are asking our educators to do is unreasonable. The result: the implosion of the system.  It's happening right now, this year, this month, TODAY. Entire teaching staffs being reassigned; schools closed or being "taken over" by the State and teachers dismissed.

Effective education is a partnership on at least four levels.

Level 1: Parents and teachers. I don't know why we tolerate it, but I do know we, our culture, have lowered our expectations for parents and shifted many parental roles onto public education. It's a fact, parents are AWOL; parents from every demographic: busy parents, tired parents, distracted parents, ambitious parents, selfish parents, economically disadvantaged parents. Unless and until parents see parenting as a worthy vocation--a selfless vocation--a social responsibility, and we can build accountability into the system for PARENTS, as well as teachers, our system will continue to devolve.

Level 2: Teachers and administrators. The current "political climate" makes this partnership difficult, if not hopelessly ineffective. "No Child Left Behind" has administrators focused on the wrong outcomes: Administrators chasing the holy grail--passing scores on standardized tests.  Under pressure to achieve a "passing grade" Administrators have dumbed the system down and mandated teaching to the lowest common denominator. The result: a brain drain of gargantuan proportions.  We've given up too much real education in the race to measure "skills." 

Leaders in education must get back to "leading."  They must be good managers; they must also be effective Innovators, Team builders and Coaches.  They must get out of their offices and into the halls and classrooms of the buildings they manage.  Teachers must be challenged to grow as professionals, taught to, and rewarded for, "thinking outside the box."  The system must be able to shed under performing (based on fair-minded, role appropriate, measurable, attainable and negotiated standards of praxis and outcomes) teachers and administrators.  Otherwise we will, without question, produce underperforming schools.

Teachers must be coachable.  Unions must be student as well as teacher focused.  Department Chairs must be trained as Master Teachers and empowered to Coach teachers under their charge, evaluate them and reward merit or remediate poor performance.

Level 3: Education and the public.  Federal oversight is an impossible burden.   There is a role for the Federal government, but not what we've seen develop over the last decade.  Educational oversight and policy creation must be sent back to the most local units of government possible and/or practical.  In most cases, that would be the locally elected School Boards.  

State oversight is critical to resource multiplication, curriculum development standards, training, and compensation.  But the State must also recognize the limits of effective management.

Communities must create opportunities, then call their citizens to participate as volunteer tutors, mentors, after-school staff, security workers and any of a dozen other functions that can be filled by people willing to give-up time, and get training or invest their expertise to give school age kids a shot at a brighter future.  This would, at the same time, preserve and extend financial resources which in turn would make it possible to provide funds for merit based pay incentives.

I challenge families who've abandoned public education for private, private-parochial or home-shooling to re-engage and re-think their decision.  It is in the long-term best interest of their kids to support and work to reform and strengthen public education.  Their unwavering commitment to quality education and the quality of the kids their raising is integral to lifting education for all our children to the next level.  This has significant implications on so many elements that are critical to the future of our nation and our children.  Look back at the 19th Century to discover what a culture of "education haves" and "have nots" becomes--and it's a most unsavory image.

Level 4: Education and the private sector.  I'm a small business owner.  Much of the property tax bill I pay every six months goes to support education.  But that's not enough.  The partnership with local business, while it's there, needs to be expanded and much more highly developed.  The answer isn't higher taxes, it's bigger hearts, fueled by shared vision and better communication.  Not only should business be there for internships, but for aggressive sponsorship--without expectation for anything in return--beyond all the significant benefits local business enjoys from a sterling school-system.

Parents need to be selfless.  Politicians and administrators need to chill.  Educators need to step-up. Citizens need to act like partriots.  It's easy to blame someone else; the problem is us. 

Meanwhile, another generation gets left behind as we race to..just about average.

bN tGit

Wait.

Wait. 
Be still and wait.
A glorious calling. 

Trust God and wait.
He comes in the silence.  
He inhabits the stillness.   

Those who wait, rise up on wings of eagles.
Those who wait, run and grow not weary.
Those who wait, walk and do not faint.  

Wait.
Be still and wait.  
A glorious calling.

bN tGit

Take back Education.

We are 15 hours and 52 minutes from 2016.

Will this be the year we finally take back the education of our kids from the mindless sycophants seeking to advance their careers as politicians, Administrators and Labor activists or their fortunes, in the case of the Testing Companies, now driving the process? 

While I don't believe the answer to our education challenge in America is to turn the keys back over to the unions, this is a clarion call to citizens; it's time we take the education of our Kids back from private enterprise and public politicians--regardless of who they might be, who they work for, or their party affiliation.  Educators, working in partnership with their communities must be restored to their mission as educators.

Education has been hijacked and demagogued by Politicians, Private Enterprise, Management AND Labor; they have all forgotten who matters--KIDS, and what's at stake--THE FUTURE OF THE NATION.

Follow this link to a blog, "How Democracy Ends" that passionately, eloquently calls us back from the edge.  

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2013/01/this-is-how-democracy-ends-apology-from.html


bN tGit

A Beautiful Mind.

Just over a year ago we said our farewells to Laura's dad as he passed into the presence of God, whom he loved and served since embracing Christ as a boy in Washington, Illinois. Gene was such a giant of a man.  Perhaps the most difficult sojourn Laura and I have made over our 43 year marriage was watching Gene "lose himself" to dementia over the last 5 years of his life. 
 
This "passage" moved me to learn more about the brain, how it functions, and why; more about the relationship of the material, the organ we call our brain, and the immaterial--our minds.  I offer this comment with great conviction: the cause/effect relationship between the way we think and the outcomes we achieve is immutable, can be scientifically documented and is the result of loving-intelliegent design. 
 
A "mind," even a poorly developed one, is a powerful force. God blessed us all with beautiful minds; having been fashioned in His image gives us access to resources beyond the natural, built right into our DNA. 

Our minds are, of course, the most unique aspect of our beings. So, what are you doing with yours? It's the first day of the rest of our lives, December 29, 2015, a wonderful portal from which to look back at what was, then gaze into the new year at what might be.
 
Here's a perpetual list I believe can keep our "life-compass" oriented, True North.  Quite frankly, much of the time this is a three-steps-forward-two-steps-back process; carry on--ONE step at a time IS progress!

For a better 2016 (and long-term, a more productive life)... 

• Go to and get out of bed earlier. Be active, body and mind, with the extra morning time.

• Give up painful thinking. Don't throw others "under the bus." Refuse to think like a victim. Seek balance in your life.
• Look for the best in people. Find ways to add value to other peoples lives.
• Give generously to a cause you feel great passion for. Volunteer and serve in some fashion, some place.
• Don't be a cynic. Refuse to associate with negative people.
• Spend time in dialogue with people who don't think like you. Make the effort to grow your intellect and expand your perspective.
• Transform obstacles into opportunities. Begin something that makes you feel challenged.
• Mentor someone younger and/or less experienced. Find someone to mentor you, then be accountable to that person.
• Read, or listen to, good books that make you feel enriched. Journal: keep it simple and short; then watch that discipline begin to expand.

Finally, and most significantly... 

"Love justice, do mercy and walk humbly with your God." Micah 6.8

For me, it starts by asking God (again) to empower me to resolve and retool the way I think and as result, the way I experience life...

"Father in heaven give me clarity to know myself... give me desire to reflect Christ... give me discipline to lean into You... give me focus to remain on task... give me wisdom to make 'best decisions' and think like You. Through Christ, let it be."
 
May this be your most beautiful year yet.



bN tGit

What's in a day?

Each year, on December 28, I pause and reflect.

The years go by like stones under rushing water and it's easy to forget what life was like 47 years ago; what life could have been like, had God not intervened that evening in 1968. It was the last Saturday night of the year; I had a plan, and it certainly did not include an up close conversation with God. But, He had a different plan...and, as it turns out, it changed my life--forever.

But the path to that evening in 1968 started many years before, when my Grandmother, who lived with us at the time, would gather me up and carry me off to Church and Sunday School--I still have my first Bible, the one mom gave me to take to church with Grandma. I didn't know, until I was a young adult, that my grandmother faithfully prayed for me each day--that "BJ would experience the power of Christ in his life and embrace Jesus as his Lord and Savior." She eventually moved back to her roots in Fort Scott Kansas. But I continued to get myself to church until 8th grade.

I don't recall why I decided to "drop out" but I'm sure it just didn't feel very "cool" to attend church and Sunday School any longer--and since I went by myself, it was my decision to make. Fast forward to the fall of my Junior year in High School. One evening I landed at a "Campus Life" meeting at the home of a classmate (Jim Rehnberg); it was the kickoff for the school year and as advertised, it was a "Burger Bash," all you could eat--and attracted a huge crowd of students. I got more that evening than a big meal. The Campus Life leader, Mark Zier, gave a short talk to close the event and he asked the crowd..."If you died tonight, do you know where you're going?" I didn't; it bothered me, then I moved on.

On the evening of December 28, 1968 I was set to attend an "After Christmas" party with some buddies (Jerry McClain was driving). Our "wires got crossed" (coincidence?) and they never showed up; stuck, I recalled something was happening at the Rec-center with Campus Life that night--they called it a "Campus Life Rally." There was a girl I had some interest in (Colleen Rehnberg) and I knew she would probably be there (I was right); I managed to catch Mark (Zier) before he'd left his house. He was delighted when I called, and he swung by and picked me up. An evening of activities, music and then a guy, Roger Cross, got up and challenged me again about my life and death. This time I was ready and wanted to get this question resolved; Mark talked with me and then invited me to pray a short, simple prayer to embrace Jesus as Messiah, and the rest...is history.

Three weeks later I went to the Ventura "Rally." Mark asked me to share about my recent conversion experience with that half of the county I grew up in. Mark mentioned a girl he thought I'd really like, a cute Sophomore at Buena High School named Laura--he wanted to introduce us; he was right. In that span of three weeks I'd had two introductions that literally changed the direction and the outcome of my life: I'd trusted Christ and met my future wife--we married 3 years, 48 weeks and 6 days later.

My home was a rather complicated place (aren't most). Lot's of love and pain. I was carrying some emotional baggage by that time and was making some bad choices. Christ changed all that in an instant. The baggage was there--in fact it didn't get fully "unpacked" for years. But His presence in my life set me in a "best direction" that just never wavered. Laura's family embraced me as a "son" as our relationship grew; they, especially her dad (my dad died suddenly in 1970), filled a great need in my life.

In the 80's there was a popular gospel song written by Bill Gaither that describes my story, I get choked up every time I sing it; the chorus declares..."Something beautiful, something good; all my confusion He understood, all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but He made something, beautiful, out of my life."

December, 28, 1968. What a difference a day makes.

bN tGit