(Why I am a presenter for Rachel’s Challenge in public schools.)
In seven decades of living, I have watched a philosophy of meaninglessness close in on this world of beautiful people and its children.
Yesterday’s children move into leadership unable to see beyond personal glory, power, and pleasure. Raised on the Freudian blame game, relative truth, and random existence, they have left a legacy of self-absorption.
And the light fades from the eyes of our children.
The Me Generation has replaced the Greatest Generation.
God is out, and self is god.
Takers overwhelm the givers.
Blank looks fill the halls of our schools.
Our kids look lost.
BUT the story a seventeen year old girl killed in the Columbine tragedy is turning the light on in the darkness. As I tell Rachel Scott’s story I see blank faces become animated, crushed spirits come alive, and a sense of destiny fill lost hearts. Rachel left a legacy of kindness and the chain reaction is lengthening around the world. Fifteen million have heard her story and kindness is becoming “cool.”
I drag my seventy year old body around the country to tell Rachel’s story and continue the chain reaction of kindness and compassion she began at Columbine.
I struggle to learn unfamiliar technology to see the light come back into the eyes of our children.
I squeeze my plump body into tiny airplane seats for long hours to see uniqueness expressed from a heart long suppressed by collectivist education.
I get into strange rental cars searching for light switches and wiper controls to see a lost soul walk out of a room with a purpose for living.
I fall into a lonely motel bed exhausted “pumped” that I got to see the light come on in more hearts of children who will change the world long after I am gone.
I drove 1300 miles for a young lady in Des Moines, Iowa. Fifteen hundred kids had just vacated an auditorium. I was struggling alone to pack my cords and equipment. A seventeen year old girl, the same age as Rachel when she was killed, walk up to me and said,
“Thank you for coming to our school, Mr. May.”
“It was my pleasure, but why do you thank me?”
“Well, I’ve just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I have six months to live. Rachel taught me it’s not how long you live, but what you do with what you’ve got that counts. I am going to use these last six months to pass on kindness to my friends.”
I dropped my cords, began weeping and gave her a big hug. I still remember her face, her red blouse, blue jeans, and flip flops. Her classmates told me at lunch that she was a hero in their school and remarkably wise for her age. I lost touch and assume she passed away leaving a legacy of kindness.
As I drove away, I called my wife and told her the trip was worth it for one dying girl in Des Moines. A young lady is using the last days of her life to lengthen the chain reaction of kindness in our dark world.
That’s my “why.”
Search the Posts
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- dennis weaver on YADA – YADA – YADA… The best guidance system in the universe!
- Penelope on YADA – YADA – YADA… The best guidance system in the universe!
- Linda Strom on THE LONELINESS OF GOD
- Ardith Duke on Resisting Evil Empowers It
- Steve Sjordal on Resisting Evil Empowers It
Categories
Tag Cloud
- bible
- C. S. Lewis
- cancer
- Christian
- Columbine
- Cross
- Des Moines
- Easter
- God
- good news
- Guinness
- heart
- Heaven
- Hebrews
- hurts
- Jeremiah
- jokes
- kingdom
- legacy
- lies
- Lord
- Luke
- Malcolm Muggeridge
- Matthew
- Monday
- muggeridge
- Pascal
- Paul Tournier
- politics
- Proverbs
- Psalms
- Rachel's Challenge
- Rachel Scott
- Saturday
- school
- scripture
- servant
- sheep
- Sunday
- teen agers
- The Word
- truth
- universe
- Walter Lanyon
- wisdom
Archives
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- June 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- August 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
That’s amazing. What a story in Des Moines. Yep, “it” really is worth for one.
So few return to say thank you–the one that does speaks for the many you have touched in a special way that did not for whatever reason come back to thank you.
I so identified with this posting. If our “why” is not for the Lord , we might has well hang it up. Thanks for sharing and for spending time writing….you touch many hearts and help us in our daily walk here on this earth.
I have long awaited the time when someone was given, and seized, the opportunity to change the “empty faces” of our young people in our public schools and inspire them with the greatest thing in life – LOVE! Thanks, Jim, you’re always right-on in your writings, too!
I need to examine my “why” just again. My body is dwindling but I press on for the “vision” I knew so many years back. How the Father will accomplish His purposes for and in me is still a mystery. It may yet be until the day I pass; perhaps others will fulfill it.
Jim, your poetry is spilling over into and through your prose. This is a prime example.
Keep it going. If I enjoy and am inspired, others are, also.
Jim your words reminded me of the reality portrayed by Jesus. He ministered to the masses, yet often was led by the Father to simply the one. It is often the “one’s” stories, ( woman at the well, Gaderene demoniac, woman who couldn’t stop bleeding and the woman who poured oil and washed Jesus with her tears) that we best relate to ourselves. Following the lead of Jesus is my why. Thanks for the inspiration!
. I totally agree. Since reaindg the book Radical, our family has begun some dramatic changes that involve the ideas in this challenge. Just to start giving of ourselves, sacrificing for others, making sure that people see Jesus in us and that we speak His name to as many people as possible. I heard a neat thing this weekend, originally from Louis Giglio, I think, that our lives are our obituary…how I live is what will be preached about at my funeral, oh, how I hope it is that people saw Jesus through me!
Jim,
I look forward to being timeless with you. Some pour darkness into their veins looking for YHVH in the most unusual ways. G.K. Chesterton said, “the only difference than the man in the brothels and the man in church is that they are both looking for God in different ways.” The hope of epiphanies toward The kingdom among us is strong medicine to which I confess I too am completely addicted. The intense moments when facades drop like rain and silence explodes the soul with the ambivalence of a child is what I love. There, in those moments all soils become rich for planting…those moments when business and busyness are exposed as the frauds they really are… there, I will be sobered by their pain. Hugging it away, listening and holding cold swetty hands. How can we not give the awesome gifts get back to everyone we see? Time, this gift to spend with all these overlooked treasures we call people but YHVH calls His children. I am not always comfortable but even this is a privilege when I know that I am being obedient. Thank you for following. Thank you for loving. Thanks for the candor, authenticity, and battle to retain these things…this agape love.