Poster Boy

Chloe remains in a class by herself, almost five years later! Read and find out why in this entry from October 15, 2014.

In my last period 8th grade Bible class this afternoon, I asked Sydney, one of my players, if she thinks she would have liked me had she known me as an 8th grader. She hesitated as I thought she might. You see, many of the girls that age don't like the boys that age due to maturity issues. I asked the girls if they thought they were special compared to many 8th grade girls at large, due to the way their parents are raising them. They readily agreed so I turned it around and asked if the same does not also apply to the gentlemen sitting by them in our school? They agreed, maybe grudgingly, but they agreed. I asked them because of the clip I showed (at the bottom of this entry) in which 8th grade boys show great kindness and compassion to a young man who really, really struggles. There were a few tears shed as we watched although with the lights out, not many would openly admit it. I hope you'll take three minutes and watch- it's worth it.

We took a test today in my two afternoon Gospels classes. My morning Gospels section will take it tomorrow due to their appointment with the PSAT this A.M. Before our test, I showed the same clip I talked about in the opening paragraph and when it was finished, I threw out a challenge to my seventh period: If any of the 27 students could tell me whose picture was on the poster on the school cafeteria wall in the clip, which by the way, is from the CBS NEWS segment, On The Road, I would give the entire class a free answer on tomorrow's quiz. Blank stares from twenty-six teens..... but not from Chloe. 
"Dwayne Johnson!"
She was right and I was stunned. You see, it was a small poster for Got Milk and it did not even identify Johnson, AKA, The Rock, exactly. (The poster stated Protein To Rock Your Day.) It was on for only three or four seconds and was to the side of the action. I asked Sydney's class as well- no one at all saw it. How or why did Chloe recognize it while everyone else in two classes did not? I'm not sure. She is a terrific student and universally recognized at Westbury Christian as one of the best people on the planet. All I know is her brain picked up what escaped the minds of her peers. 

Do you know what happened to me at five o'clock this morning? I found a twenty dollar bill that was wadded up in my medicine cabinet, folded into a WAL-MART receipt and a cancelled check. Do you know how long it had been there? Since April 14, according to the date printed on my bill. I usually get twenty dollars back each time I write a check to avoid trips to the bank. I have no clue why I put it in the cabinet but I know I've had to look at it every day in the six intervening months, subtracting the twenty-four days of my Vietnam mission. Looked right at it and never saw it. When Jesus was asked by His men why He spoke to the crowd in parables, His reply was, in Matthew 13. verse 13:

“Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand."
How true those words ring still today. Few grasp the opportunities laid before us or the truths that go in one ear and out the other. The football players in the clip, they saw a boy in need. Choe perceived what flew by the others. And that twenty dollar bill was hiding in my plain sight. And sometimes, I wonder what else I'm missing.

Copy and paste the link below to watch the clip to which I'm referring:

http://www.upworthy.com/their-son-wasnt-a-popular-kid-imagine-their-surprise-when-this-happened-right-before-their-eyes?c=reccon1

Applicable quote of the day:
"I was brought up as an only child, and we were very close. But when I was 14, we got evicted. We came home to a padlock, and I looked up at my mom and she was crying, and there was nothing to do."
Dwayne Johnson

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com