“Heya Ben!” I say as grade 10 Ben sits down in my class. “How you doin?” He stops, looks at me and says, “So, So.” Then he clears his throat, shakes his head 2 times, looks back up and says, “Have you ever had a day when nothing good happens?” Woa. I thought for a couple seconds. “Hmmm, I kind of trained myself to look for something good in each day no matter how bad it was.” He looked at me again. By this time the other 3 guys had sat down in their seats and were listening too. We had time so I explained a little. “Remember when I told you guys in chapel about being sick and almost dying? Well, to get better I was sent to a place where everything was taken from me, all sense of worth and who I was. I had to be stripped down and weighed every morning, I had to get my heart tested everyday, I always had to have my hands visible at the table, I couldn’t even flush my own toilet.” I went on and explained a bit more of the scene and then told them how my roommate and I would make each other say 2 things we were thankful for at the end of the day. It was hard! “Sometimes it ended up being just a smile someone gave, or that now we could go to bed and forget the day. Does that make any sense?” “It’s good we have farong teachers,” Ben replied. Huh? “It’s good you are hear to share the different way you think.” Wow.
The next day Ben’s girlfriend, Carin, got sideswiped by a Thai teacher. I found her with Ben’s arm around her and her friend Sai sitting nearby outside my classroom. Carin was crying and they were just sitting with her. I knelt down next to her and asked Sai some questions. “Kru Tak told Soda’s mom that Carin is a bad girl and Soda shouldn’t be hanging out with her.” Carin is one of the students whose dad died my first year here. Her mom now travels a lot as she is a Thai dancer and has been away from home for a bit. Obviously Carin has been having a bit of a lonely time but her friends have been a constant encouragement to her. “She told her that Carin has a bad home life and her mother doesn’t care for her.” EEGADS! I sat there a bit and rubbed her back as her tears silently fell on her skirt. “Carin, what is the truth?” We talked a bit about where we should find the truth and how teachers and adults can be wrong. I told her that Ben and Sai being there show that people care about her and like her. I got up and went to my classroom and wrote a note about God not making junk and how what He thinks matters most.
Well, grade 10 comes into the class and I have a heavy heart as I think about how much words can hurt. “There is a phrase in the States that goes, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’ That’s a lie. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will break my heart’ is much more close to the truth. I hated high school.” Ben nods his head and says, “me too!”. “Please don’t find your worth in what others say about you. No sermon, remember worth comes from God first.”
Man, a lot of hurt continues to thread itself into the daily lives of students, teachers, and Im sure you. I pray that we will seek truth and not find our worth in others or things. Easier said than done, huh? Doesn’t mean that we don’t try. I hope that the little things of each day can bring a smile or thought of happiness and I also pray that you stay under the trial you may be in so you won’t have to learn the lesson again.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Phil 3:12