Walking to Emmaus in Education
By Donald Clark
Now the same day two of them were going down a hall in a school called Emmaus. They were talking to each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them (adapted from Luke 24:13-15).
Dear Jesus,
I often feel like the two men you met on the road to Emmaus. They heard about Your crucifixion, were confused and had lost hope. They knew You were the missing ingredient in their personal lives and culture of oppression.
Lord, I look back at the history of education in America. Over the last 70 years, the courts crucified your physical presence in the public schools of this nation. State led prayer, Bible instruction and such things as posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms have long been forbidden. What was once the cornerstone of public schools has been rejected.
I am saddened and distressed. I know You are the missing ingredient in the lives of so many parents, students and staff where I work. Many do not know You as their savior. Many have no solid cornerstone upon which to build their lives.
Jesus, come walk beside me on this professional road. Open the Scriptures and Your heart unto me so I may understand the things that are happening in public schools now. Open my eyes to the reality and fullness of Your resurrection in my professional life and in the lives of the parents, students and staff I serve in Your name and for Your glory.
I remember You told Your disciples that You were going to be killed in Jerusalem and it was part of Your Father’s plan. None of them really understood or accepted it until it happened, and then they scattered like sheep without a shepherd. I believe many of Your people who serve in public education are like these scattered sheep. We are scattered and there is little to no spiritual unity. Many do not desire, perceive, experience or expect Your leadership in their professional lives.
After Your resurrection You instructed Your followers to wait in Jerusalem for Your power, the Holy Spirit, to come upon them from on high to lead them. Lord, help me and other followers in this profession wait together in prayer and unity for this same guiding and empowering Spirit to lead us.
Jesus, governments can make decisions which destroy Your physical presence in education, but they cannot destroy Your Spirit, love, and Word our Father has inscribed in the hearts of all people. Teach me to trust You in this profession. I know You are not dead in public education, though physically many things which remind me of You are gone. Thank you for walking right here beside me in the halls of education. Grant me Christian co-workers who will walk side by side with You and me. Thank you for opening my eyes and ears to see and hear You while on the job.
Love Always,
Your Student Teacher
“…Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21).
GET REAL: 1) Let God lead you to a Christian co-worker with whom He wants you to spiritually walk. Develop a friendship with him/her. Share the Word and pray together. 2) Hang the national motto in your classroom, “In God We Trust.” Daily read it aloud and live it. (Request free national motto poster at [email protected].)
© Donald Clark 2021 from Simple Wisdom for a Teacher’s Heart
Donald Clark is a thirty-three-year public educator of special needs students. He is the founder of the CEAI Houston Area Network and has been its Director for over twenty years. He has received the Texas Lifetime Achievement Award from the HEB Excellence in Education program and has received a state congressional commendation for his work with youth and educators. He has written numerous collections of educator devotionals such as Teacher Take Courage!, The Carpenter’s Classroom and Get Off the Bus. He has been published in the Teachers of Vision magazine and his work featured in Around the Word in 180 Days. He recently launched a new book, Peemail–Pet’s Healing Power, which is available on Amazon.
I would like to order the poster of our National Motto.
Hello Karen. Please send your poster request to Don Clark at [email protected].