Understanding How A Hero Perseveres In Difficult Times

Video:
The 2021-22 school year is now upon us. We have all faced difficulty in these past 18 months and during the pandemic season, but school districts, teachers, administrators, I can't imagine all that they have gone through. In fact, this is the third year that school districts have been impacted by the COVID pandemic. Teachers and administrators have been through the ringer. I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm not sure I fully comprehend all that they have had to go through and all that they have had to face. So today I want to find out more. Let's go back to school. Well, clearly the new school year is right upon us now. And I'd love to get your thoughts about the coming school year. What are you most excited about?

Jenae Walsh:
Definitely having kids in my classroom again, and getting to build those relationships, right? In the moment, face-to-face.

Taylor McCool:
So I'm just excited to see kids and be able to have relationships with them again and their parents and it'll be good.

Ryan Solano:
Seeing the kids, I think that's why almost every educator got into this profession is because we love and care about kids.

Ross Andress:
I'm excited to have all the kids back in the classroom and just being able to build those relationships and get to know them and get to work with them in person. I think that was one of the biggest challenges last year, because it was almost heartbreaking to not be able to support those kids who just were struggling at home and weren't able to get out of the house and get the help they need with their classwork.

Jim Johnson:
What has been the most difficult part of your job during this pandemic season?

Jenae Walsh:
I think trying to motivate the kids and engage them. So I feel like that was probably the biggest challenge because some of them are doing different things while they're at home. I had a kid who was on a trampoline one morning. And so, just the different distractions—that was definitely a little challenging.

Ryan Solano:
Yeah. It was phenomenal the amount of creativity that teachers had in getting around those restraints while still getting to know their students, still connecting with them, whether it was in the virtual platform or in the school building. Because last year we had both, we had students to stay at home the entire year.

Jim Johnson:
All right. Now, what would you like for all of us non-teacher types to know about being a teacher?

Taylor McCool:
I guess I would want people to know that I always have their child's best interests at heart. I want to care for them and I want to love them. And that is always my intention. And so if there's anything that, if they're having a problem at school or they're going through something difficult, I am their first cheerleader, I've got their back, I am for them and I want the community and I want parents to always know that.

Ross Andress:
When I think about what the kids are going to need, a lot of our conversations and focus are about, there's going to be this skill gap that kids have because of COVID. Our sixth graders are coming into the building. They may not have been in school since fourth grade. And so they're coming into middle school and they didn't even get to finish their elementary experience. And so, being able to not only try and get them caught up whatever that may mean, we also want to make sure that we're supporting them emotionally and mentally, because it's going to be a lot of stress for a lot of kids this year.

Jim Johnson:
This has been a difficult 18 months and many educators have opted out of the profession. What has kept you going, personally through this difficult time?

Ryan Solano:
I know that I am doing what God has called me to do, and that encourages me every morning when I wake up to do this job, that he has me right where I'm supposed to be. I care about kids. I love kids and I love investing in our community. And that's good for me.

Jim Johnson:
Yes, I would agree. If we have educators like this in our school systems here in north Texas, we are in very, very good hands. Now I'm not a public school teacher like Ryan, but I have a real heart for educators and education because after I graduated from high school, I decided I would start over and do another 12 years of school. So I did four years of undergrad, three years in a master Divinity and five years in a PhD. And so I've spent more than a third of my life in school. And it's such a huge part of our family that my oldest son who's always been competitive with his dad decided that he would get another degree on top of mine. So he has a master's, a JD, and a PhD, and now he's a college professor. And so education is just deeply ingrained in our family's life. To the point that it's been 35 years since I graduated, but my biological clock still operates by the semester system.

Jim Johnson:
That's the way I do life, this is the fall semester, this is the spring semester. So let me tell you, we have a heart for educators here at Preston Trail. And especially in this particular day and time, in fact, it fell to me to deliver this message last year at our annual teacher appreciation week. And I decided to go back and see what I said last year. And I said, "It's kind of like deja vu because I thought last year we'd be done with this, right?" But now we're still in the middle of all of this. And one of the statements that I made last year was this, "That of all the professions that have been impacted by the COVID pandemic in terms of sheer numbers and the level of disruption across the board, nothing has been impacted like the educational world." And that trend still continues.

Jim Johnson:
The United nations has discovered that 98.6% of all school age children around the world have been impacted by the pandemic. This is the largest disruption of educational systems in the history of the world. That is, it has impacted 1.725 billion kids, but it's also impacting educators. The national association of secondary school principals did a survey and they discovered that 42% of their principals considered this past year leaving their job. When it comes to teachers, 75% of teachers surveyed said they are experiencing high stress at work. Now that may not surprise you, but in all the other professions, only about 40% of the people are expressing that kind of level of stress. And perhaps more concerning than that is that 27% of teachers have either struggled with or been diagnosed with depression. And only 10% of the people in other professions have had that kind of impact.

Jim Johnson:
So clearly our educational world has been impacted by the pandemic and there are different coping strategies that people have used. And one of those I think is humor. As a matter of fact, there've been a lot of wonderful teacher tweets and admin tweets through the years that got us just laughing at the situation. So I thought I would share some of my new favorites. So here's the first one. "Preparing to go back to school on campus, step one, start wearing real pants." And you know, if you're on zoom all the time, you can get away with stuff, right? So clearly you can't, in-person, here's the next one. "A student returned to in-person learning today. I said, 'Hi, nice to finally meet you in real life.' They did not say hi. And so they just said, 'I thought you were fat. You looked fat on Zoom.'"

Jim Johnson:
Well, it is true the camera adds 10 pounds to your weight, right? So I think here's the last one. And I really liked this one. "Admin in 2020, please be prepared to teach online, in-person, both simultaneously, on a moving train while juggling, in a burning building under the sea, during a wrestling match with a T-Rex, as a hologram, and riding a unicorn also be safe. And we value you." Now there's a little passive aggressiveness going on there, but I really think she is trying to describe what they'd been going through.

Jim Johnson:
And so, this day is about joining educators and trying to help with your coping strategies. And we are calling this series Celebrating Everyday Heroes. Celebrate means to publicly and ceremoniously express admiration and approval. So that's why we set aside an entire day and this time, in an official setting to really say, we love you, we are admirers of all that you do, and we see you. But we're also celebrating every day kinds of people, that is regular folks who have to pay bills, who have kids to raise, who put their pants on one leg at a time like everybody else. And yet they consistently shine every day and they are heroes. They're heroic by demonstrating courage and commitment in the face of adversity.

Jim Johnson:
In and of itself, teaching is a noble calling, but it's not necessarily heroic. It becomes heroic when you have to face great adversity, no commander of a ship distinguished himself while he was docked, he had to be on the open sea. So it's not until we experience difficulty and trouble and adversity, that the heroic part comes in. So here's what we want to do today. In fact, this is my hope and desire for all of us, that we're going to celebrate the courage and commitment of the educators among us and inspire the everyday hero that lives deep inside the rest of us.
And so, I'm going to use the story of Nehemiah as kind of the backdrop of my talk today. Nehemiah's a book in the old Testament. It is about a man by the name of Nehemiah who was a cup bearer in the palace staff of Artaxerxes, the king of Babylon. And the story really begins about 587 BC when the Babylonians laid seize to Jerusalem and destroyed and defeated Jerusalem and Judah, which is the name of their country. And they took most of the healthy, young Jewish people with them back to Babylon in captivity. And that's where they stayed. And that's where they served the government, they were essentially slave labor. But by 538 BC, the Persians defeated the Babylonians and king Cyrus of the Persians decided to let some of the Jewish people go back to Jerusalem.

Jim Johnson:
And so Zerubbabel allowed about 40,000 Jews to go back to Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple. So fast forward to 448 BC, and now Nehemiah is living and working in the palace of Artaxerxes, and his brother comes, he's returning from a recent trip back to Judah and Jerusalem. And Nehemiah goes, 'Tell me what's going on. What's happening to our people there?" And his brother says, "You wouldn't believe it. There is so much trouble. There is so much insecurity. The walls have been breached. They are in ruins and they are really struggling." And when you read Nehemiah chapter one, it says that Nehemiah began to weep and mourn and fast and pray. And he continued to do so for four months, until finally he sensed that God was calling him and moving him to do something. And so he takes a chance and he kind of shares what's going on with Artaxerxes, and Artaxerxes believes in his mission, believes in what he's saying.

Jim Johnson:
And he funds his project to go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he gives him all kinds of signed permission, slips to get where he needed to go. And Nehemiah goes back and gets ready to build a wall. But guess what? People of other provinces around Jerusalem and Judah are not happy about that. So they begin to threaten Nehemiah. They're going to fight them. They're going to shut down the work. And so it is in this backdrop of adversity that Nehemiah and the people who went with him are going to display the characteristics of everyday heroes. So let's unpack that a little bit, and I hope that you'll resonate with it. If you're an educator, if you're an accountant, if you're a software person, if you're a stay-at-home mom, if you are a physician, whatever the case is, that you'll be able to apply these same things to where God has placed you as well.
So, here's the first one. Everyday heroes have a clear sense of their calling. And, I think that's exactly what happened to Nehemiah. That is, he started praying about it. He was crushed. He was wrecked by it all, but as he continued to pray about it, in his devastation, God begin to do a work in his life. And we read this in verses four through five of Nehemiah Two, after he goes to the king and lets him know what's on his heart and what he senses that he's supposed to do, this is what he records: "The king said to me, 'What is it that you want?' And then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king. 'If it pleases the king. And if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.'"

He has this sense that God has something for him, something for him to do. Now I'm going to highlight a couple of things about this sense of calling. Here's the first one, seeing a need does not signify a calling, but as we see needs all around us, and quite frankly, if we tried to meet every need that we see, man, we would be burned out, broke. We couldn't do it because there are so many needs, but seeing a need can be the seed of a calling. And I think that's what happened in Nehemiah's life. That is, as he prayed about it, the needs of the people there, the condition and the situation of his Jewish brothers and sisters wouldn't let him go. And so it became a calling for him.

I love what Frederick Buechner, in his book Wishful Thinking, says about a calling. He says, "God calls us to a place. It's a conjunction of our greatest need, whatever it is we need to do and what the world's great need is." And then he summarizes it by this beautiful statement. He says, "The place God calls you to is a place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." I don't know if you saw it, but as Ryan was sharing her story, couldn't you just pick up the gladness and the joy that she experienced in being a teacher, and the world needs teachers to prepare the next generation. And that's what God is doing. He is calling us. And educators, your calling is to kids. And we saw that in the video. Every one of them said, the reason I keep going is to be with the kids, to nurture the kids, to equip them and to teach them.

But you may not be an educator. What is God calling you to do? Do you have a sense of calling in your vocation? Do you understand that God has put you in this place for his purposes to enhance the lives of the community around you and the lives of the people with whom you work? A couple of weeks ago, we talked about Grow and Go and how God is calling us all to be his people, his ambassadors where we live, work and play. Here's a thought that came to my mind that I really want to challenge you with. And here it is, "In Christ, the purpose of our callings is the same." That is, we are called to work for, to pray for the well-being of everyone around us, in our circle of influence, where we work, where we live. We are called to be God's person to demonstrate neighbor love and Christ's love.

And yet the places to which we are called are different. You might be a realtor and you're going, "Well, does God call me to do that?" Well, you know what, if you help someone find their home, that's going to give them comfort and protection. That's a wonderful thing you're doing for that person. And you have the opportunity to meet them and to encourage them and to enrich their life. And to bless them. You might be a software designer, but you're designing software that's going to help some people save time. So they have more time to do things productive in their life. And by doing that, you are enhancing the lives of people, but you're also called to be with and to be for, and to love the people with you. You might be a city official, you might be a physician, you might be an accountant and you're called into those places.

But our calling in Christ is the same, to love those around us, to serve them in Jesus' name, to love them till they ask us why. And then, we have the opportunity to tell them. So everyday heroes have this sense of calling in their lives. Here's a second one. Everyday heroes demonstrate the courage to do whatever it takes. I'm going to share with you a passage of scriptures, Nehemiah 4:16-18 and verse 21. And it's the one that really stuck out in my mind, as I was thinking about this message that really kind of describes what teachers are going through. Here's what you read in Nehemiah four "From that day on..." And what happened is Sanballat the governor of Samaria, which is north of Jerusalem came and threatened Nehemiah and threatened the work and said, "We're going to shut you down."

And so now this is Nehemiah's response. "So half of my men did the work. While the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. And those who carried materials, did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other. And each of the builders wore his sword at his side or the mask on his face as he worked. So we continue the work with half the men holding spears from the first light of day until the stars came out." So, as I was thinking about this passage, I'm thinking about teachers have to be in person and trying to do it virtually, like the guys trying to build a wall with one hand while carrying their weapon in another. And when we are in the middle of difficulty and challenge, we have to be willing to do whatever it takes. And teachers and educators, that's the kind of the world you've been in, you're having to do whatever it takes.

Synchronous, asynchronous, mask, no mask who knows what's going to happen. And then people looking over your shoulder and oftentimes criticizing you for what you're doing, but you know what, everyday heroes, they're willing to do whatever it takes. Katie Samoyedny is a teacher who's a part of our church family. And she sent me an email letting me know a little bit about her life. And she had an incredible spirit. But she chronicled what she went through last year. And here is Katie with her new class bunny. This is Dutch and the class loves Dutch, because now they can be in person. So anyway, here's what she says, "I was hired as a second grade teacher the week before my wedding." That's a great way to get started. Right? "I started out last fall teaching virtually the first two weeks." Kind of like everybody did.

"I met all my kids online for the first time I met most of my team for the first time through phone calls and emails and Zoom meetings. I had been scheduled to be an in-person teacher at the beginning, but at one week in the school year, they changed me to virtual only. And so I went from having 13 kids to 31 kids every day on Zoom." Katie, like many other educators, had to be willing to do whatever it would take to educate the kids that had been given to her. And she did so out of this sense of calling. So let me ask you, in your sense of calling where God has you and you have this sense that if you do your work well, you're enhancing the lives of people in some way. And you're trying to enhance the lives of the people who work alongside you or live alongside you.

Here's the thing, the more we love them, the more we get to know them, the more things will be required of us to spend time with them. It might require resources to help them and come alongside them at some point in time. Are we willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill the mission that God is calling us to where we live and where we work and where we play?

Here's the third one, everyday heroes persevere in the face of uncertainty. Do you know uncertainty about your success and uncertainty about your safety are harbingers of discouragement? And it really sucks the life out of you. And this is exactly what was happening to the people that Nehemiah was leading. Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, that is the people who were helping rebuild a wall, "The strength of the laborers is giving out. And there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."
They're already discouraged. They don't think they have enough resources. "And then also our enemy said before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them, and we'll kill them and put an end to the work." Man, this sense of uncertainty about your safety or about having the resources needed to finish the job truly just sucks the life out of people. As a matter of fact, there was a study done not too long ago by the Israeli army. And they took a group of soldiers and divided them into four different groups. They were going to have these soldiers do a forced 25-mile march. And each group was going to march the same distance, over the same area, carrying the same backpack. But as I said, they divided them into four groups and they did different things.

So the first group was told they were going to march 25 miles. And they told them and gave them updates about how far they had gone all along the march. Group two, they didn't tell them how far they were going to march, and they did not update them on how far they had gone. Group three was told they were going to march 25 miles, but as they got close to the end, they were told that they’re going to have to march more miles. And then the fourth group was told, "Well, you're going to have to march twice as far as the other groups." And yet they stopped them halfway through.

They all walked the same distance, but with different perceptions in their head. And they measured the effects of these perceptions on the basis of their performance and their morale and even their body chemistry. And here's what they discovered. Group one performed the best and had the highest hope and highest spirits; group two, the one that was not told anything about how far or how they were doing, they performed worse than all the groups, were discouraged, had no spirit left at all. Group three, who were told they're going to have to do more, became the most discouraged; and group four had the highest stress and the lowest morale.

Here's what I want you to see. The degree of physiological and psychological stress was determined more by what was in the head of the soldiers than in their tired feet. And educators, this pandemic has put you in groups two, three, and four. You don't know how long this is going to last. You're not always sure how well you're doing. You're being told you're going to have to do it longer than you thought. And it is impacting your sense of wellbeing and your morale.

And yet everyday heroes persevere through these things. James 1:2-4 says this, "Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." There is a debate about the way adversity impacts us. Some people say that when you experience adversity, it reveals your character. But what James is saying is that when you experience adversity, it actually will develop and build your character. I think it's both/and... But what I want to do is to encourage those of you who are educators, and those of you who have been persevering in your faith during this time is that what God is doing is he is growing you up.

He is maturing you. He is shaping and forming your character. And the same is true for each one of us. Whatever our calling is, whenever our perceptions are giving us a tone of uncertainty. When we continue to push on, that is exactly when God can do his best work in us. Now there's one last thing about an everyday hero. Everyday heroes, pray for and depend on the gracious hand of God being upon them. Now remember, going back at the beginning of chapter one, Nehemiah hears this story, he's weeping, he's mourning, he's fasting, and he's praying. And he's praying that somehow God will enable him to go and make a difference. And he takes the risk of asking Artaxerxes for help. And then when Artaxerxes responds favorably by funding him, this is how Nehemiah responds. "And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my request."

I love that phrase. "The gracious hand of God was upon me." Later on when he was in a difficult conversation with Sanballat, he was saying, "Look, I don't care what you do, our God is going to give us success." Because he understood that the gracious hand of God was upon him. And when his people got discouraged, he would call out to them, "Our God is great and amazing. He will be with us." And even when the wall was finished, it's a wonderful text that says this, that the people around you, the Samaritans, they lost their confidence and they became afraid. Why? Because they saw that what had been done had been done by the hand of God. Having this sense that the hand of God, the gracious hand of God is upon us is an incredible source of strength. It is the resource that we really can't do without.

Do you know when Paul and I planted Preston Trail 19 years ago, we were with a group of pastors, and they ask us how they could pray for us. And the first thing that came to our mind was this, we want to pray for the favor of God to be upon us. And here's the thing, the gracious hand of God is not just for Nehemiah. I believe the gracious hand of God is available for anyone who seeks him and asks him, in praise, as Nehemiah did, that he would be with them. He will resource you and care for you. Our great desire for all of you who are educators, whether you're watching online or you're here is that you would indeed experience and sense and know the gracious hand of God is on you as you're teaching, as you're administering, as you're leading, as you're caring for facilities.

And so we want to pray toward that end. And one of the best ways that we have learned and experienced prayer in this pandemic time is hearing prayers of the people. And so we asked some of our kids and adults to pray for all of you who are educators. So take a look.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for the wonderful schoolteachers that teach us all the time and that make big sacrifices for us.

Prayer:
Give them a supernatural peace and comfort and help them to remember their purpose, Lord.

Prayer:
Lord, today, I would also like to pray over the school support staff and administrators who must often navigate tough decisions and hard conversations.

Prayer:
God, we pray for renewed passion, for a renewed sense of purpose, for the new peace. We pray that their love would be enhanced as they serve our communities and love our students.

Prayer:
I pray for elementary teachers, middle school teachers, high school teachers, preschool teachers. God, you have placed on their hearts something special to work with that age group. And it's by no accident of who is in their class.

Prayer:
I know it takes a lot of people to keep the schools working and running. So I would like to pray for all the staff and all the teachers, the front office workers, the janitors, the principals, everybody that works there. And I'd like to pray for their health and safety.

Prayer:
Thank you for my teachers and make them have a good year. Amen.

Prayer:
I just thank you for all the ways they've impacted me and the ways they continue to impact students everywhere, God.

Prayer:
Thank you so much for giving us these teachers that have taught us amazing things. And have done so much for us through this pandemic. They are so amazing. Thank you, God. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.



Recorded in Frisco, Texas.