Open House

The school year is already a few weeks over with, and recently we were able to attend open house at our children's school.  They were both so excited and proud to show us everything - and I do mean everything. Nathan proudly showed me where the hand sanitizer bottle sits, where the open kleenex box sits, where the trash basket is in relation to his seat, where the white board eraser goes, and where the door to the classroom is.  I never really did see all the projects he did that were hanging on the walls.

As a teacher, I remember the days of learning how to write lesson plans.  It's been almost twenty years since I had to turn in my lesson objectives to my college instructor.  I spent hours writing down objectives and goals and how I was going to measure their success.  Walking into my children's classrooms and seeing what the teacher has planned in a day and knowing all the thought and planning it took just to get to the point of being able to write a schedule on the board makes me tired just thinking about it.

God works very much in the same way.  Our arrival into the classroom, otherwise known as our world, is completely thought out, planned by God, and written upon our heart's smartboard.  God's overall, and primary objective,  is to heal our hearts, to bring to awareness where we have been wounded, and to remove our ego's grip on our allegience to self-pity, our perceived right to be a victim, and our faithfulness to judgment that blocks the flow of love from flowing into our heartspace and into the world.  Where the chambers of our heart have been locked and bound by everything that is not God, is precisely where God's lesson plan for our lives will begin.

Every relationship we will have on this earthly plane is its own classroom.  I remember how overwhelmed I felt when I was a Freshman in high school and I had several classes in a day, all in different classrooms, all on different subjects with different teachers, and in different parts of the building.  It is the same scenario in the class of life.  Every relationship we encounter has its own objectives, its own assignments of  healing, and its own timeline in which to meet the objectives of wholeness and happiness. The last grade I taught was 6th grade, and at the beginning of every class period, I would literally tell the students what I wanted them to gain from the lesson.  I gave them the outcome I wanted them to achieve, and then engaged them in the learning process until the lesson was learned.  When we pray in the morning, The One Who Instructs reminds us that we are here to learn the lessons of  healing, to love ourselves and others, and to serve others from love's deepness, which is who we all really are.  We are Love's deepness and Love's fullest expression. 

Every person that we interact with, on a temporary basis, or a lifelong basis, comes to us in love.  Their physical body is simply the vehicle for communicating to us where our hurts lie and how we can surrender them to God, and the objectives of His Divine Curriculum.  Sometimes the lessons of healing and love are easy to understand.  We grasp the concepts right away, and other times... not so much.  Every teacher will tell you that there is no one-size fits all when it comes to teaching children, and a really superior teacher will do whatever it takes to help each student understand what they are trying to teach.  They will try out various methods,  ask other teachers what works best for them, and even help the student before and after school in order for them to achieve the desired outcome.  As a teacher, I have also encountered many situations where a child was just not developmentally ready for certain concepts.  The same is true for the spiritual student.  Sometimes our hearts are just not ready to fully grasp what God is trying to show us.  And we can tell this when the same type of emotional situation seems to find us over and over.  The objective is still the same, but the carrier(s) of the message looks different.  Teachers are patient with their students and God is eternally and forever patient with us.

When a conflict occurs, you can bet we've entered a classroom.  When we experience overwhelming loss, we've stepped into a classroom.  When you've received an unexpected miracle that has changed your life, that too, is another classroom.  When an idea seems to have just popped into your head and solved a problem, even that is a classroom.  Clare loves third grade.  She wakes up excited every day to learn from her teacher, her books, her assignments, and was so excited to start having homework to do.  It would be wonderful, if when we are aware that we have entered another classroom of the spirit, we entered with that same enthusiasm, hunger, and desire to learn and grow.  It is hard to convince the person who has experienced hurt to say,  "Oh yeah,  I've just entered another classroom, and I can't wait to learn my mistakes!"  That would be a little on the crazy side.  What is important, though, is that we've entered, and with God's instruction and grace, we will find our desk, with our name on it, and stay engaged in the learning process. There is a phrase that I've heard a lot of people often, including myself, and it is a huge hot-button issue in classrooms... testing.  Why does God keep testing me?  Why am I being tested, God? Many parents, educators, and students fear "teaching to the test". 

"Testing" is something that humans do, and we have projected this human characteristic onto God.  It isn't God that is "testing" us.  Our responses, our "one step forward, two steps back, other's responses, the way we push each other's buttons,what we believe in our hearts about humanity and our relationship with God that "tests" us.  "Testing" means that God's love is conditional on us passing it.  And that just isn't true.  We're loved even having never passed the "test".  The real "test" is us trusting God's unconditional love, a love that we could never earn. Ever hear the phrase Insanity is doing the same thing the same ways over and over again and expecting different results? This is the test that we have created for ourselves, not God. Our fear of change and trying something new is what "tests" us. Our loyalty to fear "tests" us.   It is our impatience and conditional love toward ourselves that creates "the test-like atmosphere that we believe life is."  I "test" myself everyday through with my lack of forgiveness, my lack of compassion, and my lack of self-care.  There is no report card with an "A" and a graduation march into heaven. If I look around, and I see someone hungry, jobless, homeless, and hurting in any way, I know there is still progress to be made by myself and all of humanity.  Why would God continue to shame us any further with failing "grades" than we already shame ourselves?  As long as we are learning, loving, and progressing, we are spiritually growing and evolving.  We just have to be as open and available to receiving the lessons....ever so  gently. 

We are all students and teachers in the spiritual classroom.  We are all teaching everyone else how to treat us, love us, and be in this life with us.  We are all spirits, studying who God is and who God isn't, and who I am and who I am not.  I am teaching others to either live in fear or love, by the words I choose, the actions I take, the choice to forgive or not forgive.  I teach others what I value by what I don't say, as much as what I do say and how to say it.  At the same time, I am learning from you, my spiritual teachers,  the spiritual lessons of surrendering, letting go, patience, hope, faith, and how to be charitable.  I am learning how to pray and when I pray, I am teaching others how to pray.

When I taught my 6th graders, I remember telling them that not only do I want them to learn what I know, but I want them to be able to stand up and take my place in the classroom.  I want them to master the skill by becoming the teacher.  It is one thing to learn something from a book, spit back the knowledge, and then never use it again,  but it is quite another to have to stand up and teach it. When you have to teach it, the lesson deepens in you, teaches you again and again at new levels, embeds itself in your soul, and you could teach it in your sleep...successfully. The same was true for Jesus.  He didn't want people to just quote back to him what he said.  He told the crowds that they would do what he could do, and even more.  He had no intentions of keeping everyone "beneath him".  He had no intention of keeping people in a "weakened and dependent state".  He taught to empower us.

Every teacher tries to create the "best and most productive" learning atmosphere.  The atmosphere of our hearts and minds also must be ripe for learning.  Teachers make sure there are enough resources available to ensure success.  Books, videos, open discussion, water, snacks, speakers, hands-on activities, fun lessons, writing workshops, internet access,  enough time to relax at recess, and a teacher who cares, all make learning possible.  The atmosphere of our hearts and minds must be prepared as carefully as a teacher prepares his/her classroom.  Open hearts and minds that are available for new thoughts and fresh ideas are essential in the spiritual classroom.  A willingness to have fun, share what needs to be shared, and listening as much as talking, all create an atmosphere perfect for growth.  Reading books about our spirit and journaling about our experiences can all become part of our heart's classroom.  Sharing your insights and your revelations helps further yours and other people's growth. Included in this is the ability to know when your heart needs recess...time to just rest and relax into God's ways are vital to spiritual progress.

 We all have been given the vocation to be life-long learners and life-long teachers.  Our soul thirsts to learn about God and learn who we really are in God's eyes.  Our soul is constantly answering the call to learn from the one who Created us to learn, grow, and be transformed.  Grab your backpacks! Hop on the bus, and enter the classroom with a smile!  Greet your friends, find your place, and fill your minds with God's instruction, direction, and every skill needed to live life successfully, happily, and soundly.