When you walk into my room

When you walk into my dorm room, you will see bookshelves filled with textbooks entitled “Elementary and Middle School Mathematics,” “Teaching Exceptional and Diverse Children,” “The Craft of Christian Teaching,” “Tools for Teaching,” and other such “teachery” titles.  You will also see several children’s books scattered around the room.  Chances are you will probably see my “Corban Education Work Sample Guidebook” open on my desk.  You will find a drawer filled with Crayola products.  And if you open up my wardrobe, you will find a bucket of colorful “centimeter cubes,” used for teaching math. 

When you walk into my room, it should take a mere few seconds to determine what my major is: elementary education.  I would assume that upon walking into any other education major’s room, you would find similar items leading you to the same quick conclusion about their major of choice.  If I were to walk into a health science major’s room, I would probably find books about anatomy, physics, and chemistry.  They might have lab goggles hanging on the wall.  And they probably have an intimidating calculator sitting on their desk alongside intimidating looking equations. 

I would hope that if someone walks into my life, they would quickly see where my faith is.  Is the way I live, the things I say, and the way I build relationships indicative of the main purpose of my life?  In other words, would someone who does not know me be able to see I have dedicated my life to Christ by simply observing the way I live?

“By their fruits you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”  (Matthew 7:16)

The fruits in our life declare that which is most important to us.  Do your fruits point to God, or do they point to something else?  Like the items in my room point directly to my major, I hope my life points directly to my Creator. 

A four-inch blade stuck in your head

I have a television in my dorm room that gets about 15 stations (5 of which are televangelists).  The main purpose of this television is for movie watching and catching a few minutes of the news as I get ready for my day or get ready for bed.  Last night I happened to watch as a fairly shocking news story graced my television screen. 

The news story was about a man who was stabbed by a knife during a burglary.  He walked away from the event with a few bruises, and (what he thought was) a minor stab wound in the back of his head.  Over the next four years (yes, FOUR years), this man suffered from headaches.  When he finally went to the doctor to get these headaches checked out, the doctor did a routine x-ray and found a four-inch blade stuck in his head. 

The fact that this man did not suffer from more severe ailments and that he did not even realize the severity of the stab that was taken at the back of his head is truly a miracle.  Can you image having a four-inch piece of metal jammed in your head and not even knowing about it?!  What a shock to finally find out.

I have some minor issues in my life.  You know what I’m talking about- those little anxieties that seem to pop up on occasion, or those sinful desires that sneak in every once in a while.  After watching this news story, I began to wonder if there is a bigger, more significant reason why I have these problems.  There were no obvious signs of this man’s problem (aka: the blade jammed in his head).  Similarly, there may not be any obvious signs about the problems in our own lives.  Sometimes we just get spiritual “headaches.”

But are those “headaches” actually the result of something more like a four-inch blade in our spiritual lives?  If you are experiencing some chronic spiritual ailments, maybe it’s time to take a trip to God for one of those routine check-ups.  Let God search your life for a possible dagger. 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts” (Psalm 139:23).

Let God search you and test you.  Let him remove that dagger.