I AM ...

I am a prophetic and hope-filled teacher who calls out the destiny in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket. I wonder how long before the first girls hear the voice echoing in the wilderness and begin to come forth. I already hear the roar of the Lion of Judah and the buzz of the bees hovering, flitting and zinging, over the dead carcasses which lie at the Lion’s feet. Then I see a crowd of girls marching on the mountains at the sound of His thunderous voice. I peer over the horizon anxious to see them come, lame with club-foot, bent with palsy, crawling or ram straight, but coming over the mountains, through the wastelands and desert places, steppes and valleys, over one step at a time. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the destiny in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket. I want the roads to be made smooth, the crooked paths straight, and the mountains a level-plain so that weak knees are strengthened rather than injured. I pretend not to doubt or question how some of them have become so injured and how we will survive in a world with such malevolence as to harm an innocent child. I feel anger when I see the scarred faces and hacked-off limbs. I boil with rage over the injustice and abuse of it all. I touch their dreams like clay, wet them with my tears, and begin to shape them with my fingers. I worry about how fragile their dreams are in my hands and whether they will shatter. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the best in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket.

I cry when I see wasted lives and resources and broken bodies and spirits. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the best in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket. I understand how big the problems are (lack of education, abandonment, family dysfunction, disintegration, and sexual sin). I say that we, the girls and I, can change these things. They say if you want to change the world, educate girls. We can stop terrorism, end childhood disease, improve economic conditions in our countries- truly lead with justice, fairness, and equity. I dream of the day when every child in Africa, Asia, and every hamlet and village receives a quality education and reaches their potential. I try to make the deaf ones listen. I try to open the mute ones to speak of their pain. To the listless, I encourage them to lift their eyes. I hope to see at least 50 schools built and my girls the president of the countries where they were once oppressed. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the best in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket.

Bee-Resilient Part II

I will allow the experts to explain the exact science of the miraculous bee: As these exotic wings change directions, according to Dickinson, even more vortices are added by the rotation of the wing literally flipping over in a 90˚ arc. Using its wings as a propeller with a rotating blade, the bee's wing also flaps "back into its own wake, which leads to higher forces than flapping in still air. Lastly, there is another peculiar force known as "added-mass force" which peaks at the ends of each stroke and is related to acceleration as the wings' direction changes (Phillips 2005).

Two things are involved in how the bee moves its wings: it creates its own unique dance; it does not attempt to move its wings like a hummingbird because it would surely remain earthbound. Secondly, it is constantly moving dimensionally in width and length (arc) and willing exposing its underside to get greater force. Two lessons should leap from the page: don’t do what everyone else does; do what works for you even if it looks strange. You may have to work harder to achieve success, but work it. In addition, expose yourself to criticism, ridicule; spit in fear’s face as you turn yourself upside down to be able to lift off the ground. Sure, you are exposed, but once you achieve lift, no one can touch you. It seems effort seems to be like a great deal of work to defy nature, but one only needs to consider what bees do for us once they are in the air to see it is worth all the effort. Bees pollinates flowers which take in our carbon dioxide and release needed oxygen, and they also produce something awfully sweet and beneficial in honey, (which I use to help me combat allergies).

The Secret of the Bee: Bee Resilient- Part I

No one seems to understand how he does it- gets his fat little body off the ground. His wings are too short and his body too heavy, but no naysayers can stop the bee's flight. I want to be like this small, seemingly insignificant insect. When everything in my universe, including my internal and external makeup screams to quit and to give up, I want to rise up like the bumble bee. Hebrews 12:1 tells us “since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” That is what I call resiliency, and for my twenty years in education, I have attempted to model and teach it to my students. Whether demanding excellence, critical thinking, or service, the goal was the same: go beyond what your environment and the people in it have told you is possible.

According to the New Scientist article, "The Flight of Bees," some aeronautical engineers and scientists set out to prove that the bumble bee really can't fly. One insect flight expert, Michael Dickinson, and his colleagues at Caltech, decided to investigate the actual forces at work during the insect's leap into the heavens. Scientists already knew that vortices rolling over the insect's wingspan gave it lift, but what they did not realize was how this phenomenon could explain how so heavy an object could lift itself off the ground with such short wings. In that miracle of lift lies a lesson of resiliency for humans. Sounds a lot like us. We look at family's origin, lack of credentials, abuse, divorce, learning disabilities, and all those things that weigh us down and already we feel too heavy to get off the ground. Then we look at our spiritual life and maybe our faith in God- how on earth will these little wings give us the lift we need above the mountains of problems which face us? But, we fail to realize is that there are great exotic forces at work: Christ in us the hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27).

If I had listened to society, I would never have graduated with several degrees, including a doctorate from a prestigious institution. I developed a speech impediment in the form of severe stuttering due to trauma in my life, (my grandfather who lived with us was murdered by his own brother), and I lived in world dictated by sexism and racism. My mother worked two jobs, one as a domestic, and the other as an assistant in the state school for the blind. Although she grew up sharecropping, she would go to school at nights and eventually graduate at the age of 50 with her teacher's certificate. At 70 years of age, she is still teaching, so I know a bit about resiliency as I have seen it firsthand. My grandmother raised ten children after she was widowed. My mother, the eldest, picked cotton, took care of his siblings, but still managed to graduate valedictorian from her all-black high school. Like the bee, you and I can listen to the experts or to the one true expert, God, who formed for His purpose and set us before life: "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). Bee Hopeful, Bee You, Be Resilient, MJ

Mr. Ed's Great- Great- Great..... Cousin

Here is a curious tale: a talking donkey and a man who simply couldn't hear. Balaam was a prophet hired to curse the tribes of Israel. The story's setting begins as he is on his way to do just that when he encounters the supernatural.  First Numbers 22:24,describes the scene as a"Narrow path between two vineyards between with walls on both sides." Then, in verse 26, we find that there is no room to turn, either to the right or left" on the path that Balaam is taking.

 Clearly, God is hemming him in, but Balaam does not sense or see it.  The donkey, a female donkey at that, first takes Balaam out of danger's path by moving off the road. It's her actions that save his life. Yet, three times Balaam beats the donkey.

Despite the fact tht donkey had saved his life and served him faithfully, he is too stubborn to recognize that God has opened the donkey's mouth to help him realize his folly. But even more amazing is that he does not recgonize how self-centetered and how blind he really is, so engrossed in his anger, the supernatural escapes his appreciation. How like me at times- so engrossed in only what interests me at the moment that I fail to recognize God's supernatural hand in the midst of my daily realities. The female donkey says, haven't I served  you all these many years, why would you think I would go off the road and disobey you? The third time she justs sits down in the road; the action seems to express this thought: if you, Balaam are intent on being destroyed, you are going to have to be destroyed by yourself. If you want to be destroyed, you will do it by yourself."
In fact, God's angel said, "I would rather have killed you and spared the donkey."
How could Balaam not recognize the hand of God? Balaam is stuck, mentally and spiritually. God opened his spiritual eyes and ears. Many people have carried burden and have become embittered  because they don't believe that God has seen their suffering. If God cares about a donkey, He cares about us. He will not leave us alone, and it may take awhile, but He will vindicate us like He did the donkey. Mulling these thoughts over, MJ