Tag: God

Shine as Lights to the World

by JC Bowman, posted in JC Bowman

JC at SoL

No dreams are too big, but sometimes we lose the courage to pursue them.  French Nobel Laureate André Gide writes that “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Fear keeps us holding onto the shore.

Time is running so fast, flowing like a river in our lives, sometimes stormy, sometimes with stillness.  We all encounter the world’s brokenness in different ways. For some we know there are more days behind us, then in front of us.  We struggle to find relevance in a changing world, which we helped create but sometimes do not understand.  When we were young, we never took advice, now we want to pass along the experiences and it falls on deaf ears.  Greek poet Heraclitus said it best: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Life is about change, and managing the seasons of our lives.

Many of us are not the person we desired to be as we thought we would be growing up.  Life has taught us many hard lessons.  We can feel the weight of the world on our shoulders.  We grasp to find the sweet memories from our past, discover the strength to face today and find hope for the future.  Amazing how we can get so lost in a broken world, and forget who we are—or whose we are.

When we strip everything back to bare basics, we are all the same.   We want to find love.  We want someone who knows that we are not perfect but treats us as if we are.  We want someone whose greatest fear is losing us, and we want to hang on to that love and meet challenges all couples face—together.  When they tell us they love us, we want to hear that conviction in their voice.  When those we love are with us, we want them present at the moment. We want to smile from within, because we know smiles are often faked on the outside.

We need to connect to God on a spiritual level, but we need another person to connect with on an emotional level.  When we find them, we have to hold on to them and value how blessed we truly are.  Being truly fulfilled mentally, physically, and emotionally is essential to being truly happy here on earth.  John Rzeznik, of the band Goo Goo Dolls, sings in Better Days: “I wish everyone was loved tonight, and somehow stop this endless fight, just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days.”

in a dark world, full of lies, hate, and confusion we can all find better days, by looking inside ourselves and being better people.  Hard to fathom, but you may be the only light in a dark world that some people will ever see.  We all have a mission to bring hope to the world and show a heart of compassion to others.  It is easy to judge and condemn, it is harder to engage with love and show kindness.  We should find something in life to be grateful for, and see our lives as a gift. And share that gift with others, not in isolation.

Those who bring hope to the world in the darkest of times and battle despair, inspire hope for future generations.  Light drives out darkness.  Nothing is ever lost, if hope is on your side.  Philippians 2:14-16 says:  Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.  Shine your light in the world, we need it now more than ever before.

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JC Bowman, Random Thoughts on a Tuesday

Remembering Others This Thanksgiving

by JC Bowman, posted in Holidays, JC Bowman, Professional Educators of Tennessee
GILLIAN JONES — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE People eat at one of the Berkshire Food Project’s free annual Thanksgiving dinners featuring a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including, turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, stuffing and pie. The dinner had two seatings featuring a meal at 1 pm and another at 4 pm inside the First Congregational Church in North Adams. The project prepares for 400 meals and requires dozens of volunteers. Monday, November 19, 2018.

As a teacher I used to keep a framed picture in my classroom which said, “Your Life is God’s gift to you. What you do with your Life is your gift to God.” I truly wish every child could hear that repeated every day. And what teachers do with their gift benefits so many children on a daily basis.

Teachers are often on the front line of the poverty battle. It is important that children know from where their gifts originate. This Thanksgiving is a good opportunity to be thankful for the gift of life we have and the gift of others in our lives.

I have worked with many faith and community organizations and it seems to me that many of the problems they seek to address have one root cause: poverty. I take the problems of global poverty much more serious, and have noticed a rise in poverty in both urban and rural America.

It is the best American tradition of helping others help themselves. Now is an opportune time for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of our nation and the world. I see a passion for compassion diminishing in America. Government simply cannot meet the needs of all citizens. Faith and community organizations need help. They need your time and effort. They need your money and support. We should embrace government partnership with faith-based organizations and other non-profit community organizations to do the work of fighting poverty and other issues.

To his credit, former President George W. Bush recognized the poverty problem when he said, “The growing divide between wealth and poverty, between opportunity and misery, is both a challenge to our compassion and a source of instability. We must confront it.” “We cannot,” said the president, “leave behind half of humanity as we seek a better future for ourselves. We cannot accept permanent poverty in a world of progress. There are no second-class citizens in the human race.”

Bono, of the rock group U2, said in an interview, “It’s an amazing thing to think that ours is the first generation in history that really can end extreme poverty, the kind that means a child dies for lack of food in its belly. This should be seen as the most incredible, historic opportunity but instead it’s become a millstone around our necks. We let our own pathetic excuses about how it’s ‘difficult’ justify our own inaction. Let’s be honest. We have the science, the technology, and the wealth. What we don’t have is the will, and that’s not a reason that history will accept.”

Poor and starving people are not particularly appealing news stories, but fighting poverty is and should be a moral imperative for citizens in our cities, state and nation. I am impressed by country music singer Tracy Lawrence, who regularly takes time of his schedule to feed the hungry in Nashville, and in other locations across the United State. Most recently Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley opened a free Nashville grocery store for those in need. That use of fame is a worthy cause that is under-reported in our country.

Faith reminds us that theological apathy is not an acceptable excuse. Yes, “the poor will always be with us.” However, Jesus, in his first sermon said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”

As we sit in our comfortable pews on Sunday morning singing about what it is like up there, we should remember that the poverty of spirit as equally lamentable to poverty of physical wealth. This Thanksgiving we should be thankful for both the small and large blessing in our lives. If you are a parent and your child is about to enter the world, it would be a great comfort to know that your country will use all of its resources to meet the most basic needs of all citizens, so they can succeed in our country.

To paraphrase an oft cited poem, “If you want to touch the face of God or His heart, it is not necessary to escape the surly bonds of Earth.” Take an interest in the things that interest God. Eliminate some of those nonessential things that clutter our lives. Recognize what is really essential: faith, family and friends. Embrace others. Treat everybody with dignity and respect. Lose control, let God love through you. Don’t fear the politicians. Hold them accountable. God will indeed hold us all accountable.

Think of those less fortunate this year before your Thanksgiving prayers, those in poverty whose plates are often empty. We are incapable of breaking the cycle of poverty without all of us working together. The number of hungry people in the world reached over 800 million, a harsh reminder that the world has yet to get serious about the challenge of ending hunger. We can make a difference, can’t we?

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JC Bowman is the Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the association are properly cited.

No Lie Can Live Forever

by JC Bowman, posted in JC Bowman

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech to those assembled at the conclusion of the march from Selma to Montgomery.   He told the audience “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” Then he added, “no lie can live forever.”  King also reminded the crowd: “because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

The driving force of Martin Luther King’s philosophy was the certain idea that Jesus is the truth. He believed that and he spoke of it in most of his public speeches.  King wasn’t a politician arousing a crowd with inferences to God, he was a minister evoking Christ to connect to issues facing the world.  Whether or not you agree with his worldview, he was who he was—a believer in Jesus Christ.

Like Dr. King, I don’t pretend to be anything I am not.  I have lived a full life and made mistakes.  I am comforted by my own faith in Christ.  I see the moral and earthly struggles faced by others and understand but by the Grace of God, there goes I.  It shows up in my work as executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee.  It shows up in my drive to make our organization the best association for educators in Tennessee. I have compassion for our members and the difficult job they do, and have the empathy that educators need.  But it is a two-way street.  So many teachers and administrators call and encourage me.  They appreciate our work for them and they share their success stories in education.  It cannot help but inspire me, as well as others.  Educators see miracles every single day.

Too many in our state and nation believe the lie that public education is failing.  Do we have failures?  Yes, there are things that go wrong every single day.  But looking at the big picture, the arc of the universe, as King may say, it is a beautiful success story.  Children are dropped off at a school, unable to read and write, growing up in some of the worst conditions possible.  They come from crime riddled neighborhoods, drug infested homes, often being raised by single parents and some, with no parents.  Many have no responsible adults in the picture.  Food and shelter are uncertain.  Yet teachers, some who may be unconnected themselves, make an impact that helps that child survive for a day, a week, a month and then a year.  Somehow, those children grow up.  Then the miracle they see is that the child becomes a productive citizen capable of thinking for themselves.  They didn’t become a statistic.  They didn’t die.

We all get angry.  Even God repeatedly describes himself in Scripture as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”  However, too often anger produces in us, “quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.” It also produces “enmity, strife . . . fits of anger [i.e. tantrums], rivalries, dissensions, [and] divisions.” We must balance that personally and professionally.  We must avoid the negative.  There is no perfect anger.  We should allow mercy to triumph over judgment for others, and we must remain committed to love.

When I deal with angry teachers I am reminded frequently of another lie, that anger solves problems.   We see that manifested when administrators are angry at teachers or vice-versa.  We see it on full display from teacher unions.  They really believe dissension and division resolves issues; it doesn’t. That is why we see hostility, anger, slander and gossip on frequent display from them.  I have been subjected to regular attacks personally, often based on little or no truth by paid union stalkers.  Because of my faith, I am able to persevere.  I get to witness the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice.  Truth will eventually prevail.   It is a beautiful reminder that no lie can live forever.

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JC Bowman is the Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.  Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the association are properly cited. For more information on this subject or any education issue please contact Professional Educators of Tennessee.

Christmas in My Heart

by JC Bowman, posted in Educators, Holidays, JC Bowman, Leadership, Parents, Professional Educators of Tennessee, Uncategorized

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“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

It appears that 2017 has been a long year for many people, and 2018 promises even more of the same problems with even more politics. That is usually not a good recipe for success. However, if there is any lesson to be learned it is that we should endeavor to get the most out of life, use our God-given talent and our abilities, be loyal, love our friends and family, and honor God. We should not simply strive to be common, but seek to be remarkable. Your life is God’s gift to you. What you do in life, is your gift to God.  Teachers understand this more than most.

This Christmas season we will undoubtedly hear the story of God’s love taking the form of man and coming down to earth. There is much more to that story. But what is amazing to me is the role that women played in the life of Jesus. The old saying is that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Rodgers and Hammerstein added another twist: the hand that rocks the cradle rules the heart. Either way, women have played such a critical role in the world, often unrecognized by the very people who have experienced their influence. Invisible to the naked eye, true leadership is in the womb, the breast, the hands, and the soul of woman.

A mother has the most difficult task, for she must take a young, impressionable human being, and emphasize in their young life the things they must learn and experience, the hurt they will inevitably feel, the sadness – this is a difficult task a mother must do. It takes a tremendous amount of strength, patience, and moral fiber to give birth, raise, and eventually let go of, a child. My mother did an unbelievable job, in a difficult situation with a strong-willed child. I am the man I am today because of the woman she is. I am a living testament to her encouragement, love and yes discipline. She instilled in me a passion to believe in myself and to do what is right, even when others around you do what is wrong. More importantly she gave me the desire to live my life with intention. What a beautiful gift to give.

Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet, wrote the poem “On Children.” Here is what he said: “You may give your children your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.”

I love that thought that Gibran expresses, but I differ with him: I do think we can dream that brighter future for our children. I hope that it is a future filled with hope. I wish for peace and harmony in the world and the eventual safe return of all our troops from foreign lands. In 1983 I was deployed and wasn’t home with my family during the Christmas holiday.   It was an incredibly lonely time.

I would wish that all families had an opportunity this Christmas to spend time with the ones they truly love, whether they are halfway around the world or simply across the street. Love is the greatest gift of all. If you want a magical holiday season, give yourself in love beyond what you traditionally are willing to surrender. Seize the opportunity and have the courage to tell those around you how much you care and appreciate them.

Jesus is the reason for the season. But really he is the reason for every season. The old adage “he who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree” is pretty accurate. So, from our team at Professional Educators of Tennessee to your family, we wish you an enjoyable Holiday Season and an even happier 2018!

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JC Bowman is the Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee.  Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-partisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.  Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author and the association are properly cited.