THE ATTITUDE OF CHRIST

THE ATTITUDE OF CHRIST
October 4, 2017

Prayer: Lord help me to lay down my agenda for this day and to pick up Your agenda for me instead. Give me a spirit of humility and ready my heart, mind, and hands to serve others.

Scripture: Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! Philippians 2:4-8 NIV

A popular sports tee shirt reads, “There is no ‘I’ in TEAM.” As I have had the privilege to work on our school’s leadership team for the past several years, I have been a part of the decision-making process, strategic planning, and accountability for our school. It is a very challenging position since or decisions affect the lives of everyone in our school. I pray a lot over these meetings and decisions. I pray for wisdom and knowledge; I pray for unity and understanding; I pray for research and data; I pray for many things.

I understand that you are being asked to initiate new ideas. I know you are being told to implement new processes. You are being expected to improve on last year, increase productivity and for some of you, the worse thing of all; you are being asked to use new innovations like technology. Those are a whole lot of “I” words: initiate, implement, improve, increase, and innovations. It is very difficult for me to be a part of a decision-making team that asks this of educators who are already overwhelmed, but it is necessary in today’s society if we are going to be successful.

Remember the tee shirt, “No ‘I’ in TEAM.” Well you and I both know there is definitely no “I” in Educator, or Teacher, or even Support Staff. Answering the call to be an educator is selfless. It involves sacrifice and it many times takes us out of our comfort zone. But as educators, you are not allowed any excuses. I know technology is scary for those who do not know much about it. Data Driven Dialogue is a foreign language to those who have not been trained in it, and changing your Character Curriculum one more time just might be enough to make you lose your character. (Go ahead and laugh – you know what I am talking about.)

The point is that if we are to increase our impact, influence and intelligence; we must not let our own comfort zones and interests get in the way. I cannot refuse to be a better teacher just because “I am older,” “we never did it that way before,” “I do not want to,” or “I am afraid I’ll struggle or even fail.” Taking the same attitude of Christ means we must take the very nature of a servant and humble ourselves becoming obedient no matter what. For Christ it was to death, on a cross, for you and me. We also are called to sacrifice and suffer. I know you already do in many ways – Thank you!

My prayer for you is that you would have the same attitude as Christ, knowing there is no “I” in Educator. Your reward awaits you in heaven!!!