It is popular in a lot of the books and magazines I read
these days to find impassioned calls for “social justice.” These ideas proceed from God’s call in
the scripture in places like Isaiah 58 (one of my very favorite passages in the
Bible):
“Is not this the kind
of fasting I have chosen: to loose the
chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and
to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
If you do away with
the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and
malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will
rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. “
The church I grew up in
was very cautious about this idea.
The fear was that emphasis on these social issues would overshadow the
true need—the need to share the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ death and
resurrection. As a result, Phil
and I would say we were taught to be good,
but not to do good.
As we have matured, we
have realized more and more that Jesus calls us to such work constantly. All through the Gospels, He is doing
this work and setting the example for us to follow. Jesus cares about social justice.
One of the greatest social
issues in our country and around the world is education. Where people are given access to
education, their lives improve in so many ways. Where the right to education is denied, people suffer.
This past week a Pakistani girl was shot in the head by members of the Taliban this week for
her outspoken advocacy for the rights of girls in her country to go to school.
She blogged for the BBC about education and won the National Peace Award in
Paskistan last year. This story
wakes me up to what education means to people, especially girls and women, in
third world regions.
So I have
been reflecting on my career as a teacher. I have been a teacher for over 32 years. I have spent my time working in some of
the poorest schools in Tennessee, working with students who come from severe
poverty in many cases. And in
doing so, I have been a part of bringing social justice to people in this
area. Public education is one of
the greatest endeavors our nation has undertaken. It is the way out of poverty for those who will take
advantage of it and embrace the potential it brings to their lives.
I wish I had
always looked at it as the great calling that it is. Lots of times I just looked at it as a job, as a way to make
money. But education is a great
calling. It brings hope to
people’s lives.
So today I
celebrate being a public school educator.
I am proud of being a part of an institution, which, although it has
lots of problems and challenges, is the great equalizer, the great leveler of
the playing field. It is the best
tool anyone has for digging themselves out of the pit of poverty.
I am proud
also of the many wonderful teachers I have had the privilege of working with
throughout the years. They are underpaid and underappreciated, but they do us
all a tremendous service, a service that will help keep our country strong in
years to come. Let me encourage
you who are working in education with these words:
“Let us not become
weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
give up.” Galatians 6:9
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