Educational Excellence

Monday, Monday . . .

What can we say today … something good … something positive! Even while things around us may be going astray, we don’t have to, you dig?!

Over the years, I have always learned to live with gratitude when remembering that the good things in my life far outweigh the more challenging things. I mean, we often forget that when something disappointing happens, or, things don’t quite go “our way.” That approach to life relieves me of the anxiety that accompanies that feeling of “I didn’t get what I wanted!” Not only is selfishness “not cool,” it also keeps ones happiness “inside the box,” so to speak. Enough cliches, let’s get to the bottom of this.

After still another shooting, referring to the second one in 5 years at Fort Hood, the POTUS has decided to deliver yet another address to families and friends of the victims of Ivan Lopez. How many speeches of this nature has he given? It is almost like a minister (we’ll get to that later) who has to do funerals and meet and console the families of those whose lives have expired. How do we handle such feelings? Can we simply ignore them? Unfortunately, the grieving families have more to deal with than many of us … if any. This is something that I am sure cannot be ignored by them!!! Good luck, Mr. President, in delivering yet another “talk” to grieving family members of those innocent victims involved in that senseless killing at Fort Hood last week.

Forgiving is hard . . . I have been there many times. The ingredient that MUST be challenged in forgiving someone who may have done something wrong is the ego. This is a thing that keeps the negative energy going in our lives, feeling that someone has done something wrong . . . worse yet, that someone has done “me” wrong! “How could they?” We may ask ourselves that question over and over until we feel that we have to retaliate. Why not let it go? Do we have to get back at people? Do we have to have a hostile energy “held up” inside of us to feel better about a situation? Do we have the right to punish someone? Will our egos be bruised? Are WE perfect?! These are just a few of the questions that we might want to ask ourselves before getting all puffed up and annoyed at someone else’s shortcomings while allowing that negative energy to erode away our peaceful inner selves!!

Just yesterday, as I watched the news, I learned that Pastor Bob Coy, one of my favorite speakers that I’ve had the pleasure of listening to, has resigned from Calvary Chapel, Ft. Lauderdale. Here is a man who changed his life as a manager for show girls in Vegas and all the “necessary evils” that go along with that to a church going husband and father, and, after more than 25 years with Calvary Chapel has resigned. His reasons were not specified. Only that, according to the new pastor who spoke at services yesterday reading a letter prepared by Pastor Bob, that he had done something “immoral” and felt the need to resign. How difficult must that be? I mean, for those who may know Bob, he has built Calvary Chapel into a “mega church” and implemented incredible measures to grow the congregation, reach out to the community, baptising hundreds of people each month and even had his own television show. There were times when he had delivered a sermon and I disagreed with his approach. I even stopped going to services for a while … stopped streaming the services, too! Now those who know me also know that I am NOT a “holy roller” and have no business judging anyone else. What about you?

With Easter celebrations on the horizon, it may be hard for many in Calvary’s congregation to forgive Pastor Bob. Yet, here is a man trying to reconcile his own soul with the Creator. May we allow him to do that? He is the person who spoke (may not have always acted apparently) about God’s forgiving us of our sins. May we find it in our hearts, at least those who hold him dear, to forgive him? We need to remove our egos and take off our “hater hats” in order to accomplish this. In my own experiences, I have found a deeper more precious peace . . . when I learned to forgive others.

Have a great week, y’all. Thanks so very very much for reading.

Peace,

John I. Cook, Director