The Seeds of Redemption
Happy spoiler Friday! I get the pleasure of spoiling a few of my favorite cards from testing EoT! Rather than some spoiler game from some "tricksy hobbitses" to try and reveal those precious spoilers, I actually want to do a little reflection using one of them. Today happens to be my 34th birthday. I typically try to keep my birthday low key and pretty quaint. I've never really been one for big celebrations. However, I do tend to reflect on the past year and where I am at in life. That reflection led me to the card I wanted to spoil today as I think it is very fitting.
For those of you that don't know me well, outside of Redemption I am a high school science teacher. I didn't ever plan on being a teacher but through a lot of twists and turns in life and through God's grace I was led to teaching. Every day has its own challenges and there are definitely days where I struggle and feel overworked, upset with admin, and tired from students trying my patience, heck even as I have been trying to write this slowly throughout the school day, I've had to address a bunch of crazy kids being well… crazy kids. And its also those crazy kids that make this job so rewarding despite all the headaches that some days will bring.
But here is the thing, no 2 kids in my class will have the same story or a same path forward. Many come from great homes and situations, many are just well… kids, ignorant and innocent of what lies ahead in life and just wishing that the school year would be over and that EDITED BY ROSES, and it hits me because I realize many of these kids that come into my classroom come from awful situations. Many grow up in homes where food isn't promised, love isn't given, abuse and neglect are common, violence and gang activity are the norm, situations so tragic that I could never even begin to imagine just how much pain they carry each day. It gives me pause and reason to reflect on myself because I am not perfect with patience, perfect with how I show love to these children, perfect with how I try to maintain self-control, or perfect in every which way we are called to be like Jesus our savior.
The reason I bring this up is because particularly in my work, it is evident that we plant seeds into the lives of those around us. Every day that I work is an opportunity to influence the lives of young minds and it's not something to be taken lightly. I can choose to be apathetic towards my students and give them no direction other than the bare minimum the job requires, I can choose to be harsh and try and instill discipline in the lives of these kids in a strict authoritarian way, I can choose to shame students who struggle or play favorites with some students, I can choose to lash out and respond in kind to students that test my patience, but I can also choose to reflect Christ. No matter what choice I make it is my job to plant seeds into the lives of these students not just educating their minds but in many ways their spirits as well. The depth of impact I may have on the lives of my students I may never know but if I neglect them or if I am not planting good seed into their lives through Love, Patience, Empathy, and all the other ways that reflect Christ's goodness, then the results could be disastrous for their soul.
This duty to sow good seed however isn't just something unique to my job I have found. Broken children grow up to be broken adults. Many of whom never have known a better way or have experienced the goodness and grace of God. Many may lose their way as adults and forget their need for a savior and how good our Lord is. So many people in our lives that we encounter will be lost, hurting, and in need of the Lord. And every day as a Christian we can choose to encounter these people with hearts that reflect Christ or ones that reflect the world and the flesh.
No matter who we encounter, what anyone has done, or what state of mind or kind of day we have, we should always be aware that every person we encounter is another soul the Lord can redeem and wishes to be with him. We should take heart and caution then so that whatever we do in life we do for the glory of God, and that every word and action we take should breathe life into others reflecting the glory and grace of Jesus. When we fail we should also not just live in it or act like it never happened to others. I can tell you there are definitely times where I apologize to students over things that seem small, but even small things like acknowledging where we fell short to others still shows others how Christ is working in us to be more like him. The message of the Gospel isn't just something that comes from reading scripture, it also is revealed in how God is using us and how we conduct ourselves.
So for my birthday today I view today as a reminder to challenge myself to ensure that each year and each day I am continually working to live a life that reflects Christ, as a sower of the Gospel of Jesus and his seeds of Redemption.
Now, some of you may notice I said I had some of my favorite cards plural to share with you all and I don't want to leave you all hanging there. I've got 2 more spoilers for you all that made for a really nice combo that always felt amazing to pull off and are individually powerful in their own right as well. So while later today I am having a nice birthday dinner with my wife hopefully getting filled with flesh of something tasty and getting ready to celebrate her 30th birthday this Sunday where again we can be a Flesh Feeder on another tasty meal, hopefully y'all will be cooking up some nice dishes… I mean deck lists with these cards.
Bon Appetit.
