Never Forget the Hope

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Last Thursday was thirteen years since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

For me, and for many others, the day is branded in our memories. For my seventh grade class, most weren’t even born. My eighth graders were infants or toddlers.

“Never Forget” was an American slogan that came out of that day’s tragic events, and although my students have no way of remembering the day itself, they need to know what happened.

Not because I want them to become angry or bitter, although a certain amount of anger against the atrocities committed is certainly understandable.

No, they need to know what happened, because it is part of our nation’s history. A nation with no sense of its past can make no sense of its future.

So last Thursday, we took the time to watch a few videos. My favorite was one by The Skit Guys, created a few years back. Others included clips from CNN.

We took the time to read about United Flight 93 and the heroism of its passengers that prevented the plane from reaching its target destination.

We talked about the hand of God in history.

Several students struggled. How could a loving God allow such horrible events to happen? How could God possibly “work all things together for good” in this circumstance?

The problem of living in a broken world

Those are understandable responses. We had a Cliff Notes' discussion on man’s free will and the sovereignty of God.

The bottom line: God gave mankind a free will, the ability to choose to obey or disobey Him. Man chose to disobey, and as a result, we live in a broken world. A world where terrorists crash planes into towers and innocent people die.

But did God know 9/11 was going to happen? Yes, He did.

Then why didn’t He stop it? For that matter, why doesn’t He stop natural disasters, heal children dying of cancer, or interfere in the myriads of other barbarisms that occur in this world?

Sometimes, He does. Sometimes, He doesn’t.

On my way home from church this morning, I turned on the radio to hear Dr. Erwin Lutzer talking about this very matter. He said, “Faith doesn’t judge God on circumstances.” In other words, faith doesn’t stop believing God because He doesn’t answer prayer like we want Him to.

Look at the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Moses, Gideon, Samson, and many other men and women of faith overcame their circumstances by faith. Other people of great faith were sawn asunder, tossed to lions, and died for their faith.

Too often, we let go of our faith when we focus on life’s circumstances and slip into believing the lie that our problems here are too big for God to handle. That’s what happened to Peter when he took his eyes off Jesus. He began to sink amid the raging waves.

The question we should be asking

Instead of asking how a loving God could allow bad things to happen, we should be marveling that a loving God made a way of redemption possible.

After all, sin was our choice, our mistake. Not His.

I asked my eighth graders to use an online concordance or topical Bible to find at least five verses that offer hope or encouragement in the face of tragedies like September 11.

Here are a few of their discoveries:

1.       Psalms 16:8 (ESV): “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

2.       John 3:16 (NKJV): “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

3.       John 16:33 (ESV): "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

4.       Romans 8:28 (NKJV): "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

5.       Revelation 21:4 (ESV): “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

I hope we “Never Forget” what happened thirteen years ago. One American history class in Spring Hill, Florida won’t.

But more importantly, I hope we Never Forget the Hope made possible only through the mercy of God, who loved us so much that He sent His own Son to die for the sins of the world, to make a way of redemption possible.

At the end of the day, history is His Story. Whether good or bad, the events of this world are paving the way to the climax of redemption’s story: His glorious return.

Turning the Tassel

“The end of a thing is better than its beginning (Ecclesiastes 7:8a).” I think every senior preparing to graduate understands what Solomon meant when he penned those words.

Then again, every teacher has a healthy sense of appreciation as well.

Year-in-review

Looking back over my first year teaching is something of a blur for me. At times, I felt as though I were crawling along in survival-only mode, but now, the year is almost behind me. At other times, it raced by with activities and accomplishments. For better or worse, I jumped in and gave teaching everything I could.

Whether we scrape our hands and knees across the finish line or effortlessly breeze past it, we finish. We have to finish.

But how we finish is up to us.

This Sunday, my church choir will be singing a song called “Finish Well,” and the words of the chorus summarize what I mean better than I could.

“Finish well, every day that we are given,

Finish well, for the glory of His Name.

Finish strong until the Savior finally calls us home.

Give it everything we have.

Finish well.”

Finish well

But what does that mean? Some people think finishing well means straight A’s. Others might think it means first place. Although both are worthy achievements, I think finishing strong means something more.

I wish I could tell you my first year teaching was storybook perfect, but it has quite frankly been anything but – complete with mistakes I’ve learned from (hopefully) and mixed together with drama I could definitely have done without.

Regardless, finishing strong means we did our best. Beyond that, it means we did our best with an attitude that pleased God.

And whether or not that's the case is a question each one of us has to answer for ourselves.

Tassel-turning moments

Although we only move the tassel for one, two, or maybe three literal graduations, life is full of tassel-turning moments. Whether we’re students or teachers, surgeons or stay-at-home moms, chemists or cashiers, we all face choices and challenges – where we must decide to press on even when we don’t feel like getting out of bed.

We don’t march to "Pomp and Circumstance" when we rise to the occasion. We don’t receive a gold-trimmed diploma. (In fact, no one may ever recognize our efforts or appreciate them.)

But those defining moments are God’s way of strengthening our character, graduating us to a new level of spiritual maturity, and teaching us that when we do our best to glorify Him, our work is never in vain.

Fill your life with the right choices

Our world is obsessed with health, fitness, calories, and cutting carbs. Why else would New York City attempt to ban large-size soft drinks and Starbucks venues publish calorie counts on their menu boards?

I am all for being fit and eating healthy, but I think our culture has become so concerned about waistlines that it has overlooked the bigger, root-cause issue: time lines.

What do I mean by that? Well, a timeline is simply an order of events that define history. I’m using the word here on a smaller, more personal scale. How do we spend our time? The answer to that question will define us better than the matter of what we eat.  

In Matthew 15:10-11, Jesus told the multitude that what a person says and not what he eats pollutes (or on the flip side, refines) a person. He said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

The choices that we make – and not just the choice of whether to have pizza or a salad for supper – matter.

Last time, we talked about the importance of redeeming time, and I want to build upon that thought by asking a simple, but challenging, question: With what do we fill our lives?

We have to be honest: Most of the time in a day does not belong to us. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), most adults ages 25-54 spend 7.7 hours sleeping, 8.8 hours working, and 1.0 hours on household chores. Subtract that from 24 hours, and we’re left with 6.5 hours. From there, we have to subtract time to eat (1.1 hours), leaving us with 5.4 hours left. You will also have to calculate in family responsibilities as appropriate.

In those precious hours of “free time” left, our decisions are up to us and consequently, matter most. Do we vedge in front of a TV because we’re so exhausted from our daily regimen? Or, do we fill our time with worthwhile pursuits and acts of service that will energize us and bless those around us?

We all need to take a step back from the business of our days to honestly assess what those remaining hours in our lives look like.

The choices we make unwittingly write our personal time lines. How will you fill yours?

Time for a new adventure

So far, 2013 has been a year of goals met and adventures had. I quit my day job to spend more time writing. (And by the way, the first rough draft for book number three is done!) My brother and I hiked 22 miles in the Grand Canyon. A week later, I helped chaperone a youth mission trip to New York to run a Christian day camp.

Now, I’m starting a new adventure: full-time teaching at a private Christian school. Frankly, I never thought I would be a teacher. People have told me I would make a good one; I just wasn't sure education was the job for me.

But if I’ve learned anything from the last several years, it’s that God’s plan is not what I mapped out – It is better.  

So here I am, making lesson plans, plotting out the first semester, and getting excited for school to start. Reality hit me when I was shopping last week, and a voice behind me said, “Miss Hogrefe, you’re going to be my 8^th grade teacher!”

Appropriately, I was reading in Isaiah today, and chapter 41 verse 10 reminded me that no matter what lies ahead, my God will always be there to help me.

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

What about you? Are you beginning something new? Perhaps you are persevering through a difficult time or maybe working hard to finish a major project. Regardless, the future holds new adventures and challenges for each of us.

The time is now to get ready and go in the strength of the Lord.

Go Farther: Lessons from the Grand Canyon

Have you heard the story about a little boy and his father who were playing football together? The son was getting ready to throw the football to his father when the boy shouted, “Go farther, Daddy!”

Children sometimes overestimate their abilities, but I think adults tend to do the opposite. We cheat ourselves into believing, “It’s too hard; I can’t do it,” and opt to sit on the sidelines instead of tackling challenges that seem larger-than-life.

My brother and I just returned from hiking Havasu Falls, Grand Canyon. The trip taught me a few things about pushing limits.  

You can go farther than you think you can.

As I trained for this trip over several months, I took frequent 2-4 mile rucks around my neighborhood with my 20-pound backpack. I hoped that this steady practice plus a dose of adrenaline would be enough to help me hike down the canyon to Havasu Falls. (The trail is supposedly 8 miles down to the Indian village and another 2 miles to the campground. It’s really more like 11 miles total, according to my brother’s GPS.)

What I never expected to do was hike out 11 miles the next day. My plan was to get to the village early and catch a helicopter ride out.

However, when we arrived, we learned that the helicopter sign-up didn’t open until 6 a.m., and the first flights didn’t take off until 10 a.m. – and there really was no guarantee you would get on board.

That left us with two options. Sit in the hot village for four hours waiting for the helicopter and risk having to hike out in the heat of the day if we didn’t get a flight; or just hike out.

We opted to hike out for a total of 22 miles in 2 days. 

You can push yourself harder than you trained.

Not only can you go farther, but you can also push yourself harder. Both down and up, my brother and I hiked the trail in 4 1/2 hours. The first day, we started hiking around 5:30 a.m., and the next day, we started at 4:20 a.m. Both days, we woke up around 3 a.m.

*Groan*

You are tired. You are sore. You are beat. You just put one foot in front of the other, and keep moving.

But it is so worth it.

The winding, steep mountain trail leading back up the canyon wall to the parking area was 1.5 miles high. Coming down was slippery; going up was the ultimate cardio workout.

You have to keep a good attitude, and humor helps. Along the path, my brother joked, “Pain means you’re alive.”

Thanks, Dave. Yep, I’m still alive.

The bottom line is that you can do all things through Christ. He is our source of strength.

My favorite verse is Isaiah 40:31 which says, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Ask yourself what areas in your life could use a good stretching. And if you're looking for an adventure, may I recommend Havasu Falls?