Small Difficulties. Big Results.

Henry Adams writes, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

I’ll let you in on a secret, I didn’t read this quote myself, a student of mine in prison slipped it to me.

A revelation of sorts came to me recently. My students in prison, though they live together, eat together, shower together, spend 24 hours and 365 days a year together, don’t actually know each other at all.

I believe there are two major reasons for this disconnect:

• People in prison learn to keep to themselves because they feel like they can’t trust anyone around them.

• Prisons actively discourage people from getting to know each other because if you can keep them divided, if you can keep them fighting one another, seeing the other side as “different,” they won’t band together and cause major disruptions.

This simple revelation bothered me. I came across a New York Times article with questions to ask a potential partner. I pulled a few questions from this list and gave them to my students in several different prisons with a simple instruction, “Find someone you don’t know and get to know them. You have one hour.”

I wandered around the different classrooms during the activity. I heard one female student tell another, “You are so pretty.” I heard a male student tell another, “Well, I learned I made a new friend today.” One student tapped another on the arm, proudly exclaiming, “You are a survivor.” I saw black and white sit together, young and old, addicts and gang members and Muslims and Christians gather together and talk about their pasts and dreams of the future.

I have the best job in the world. I am a teacher. But not just any teacher. I don’t teach so my students earn high grades or give me glowing reviews so I can earn a nice bonus. I don’t conduct groundbreaking research that wins me fancy awards and allows me to speak at conferences in Zurich. I teach for Christ. For His kingdom. That’s all. It’s simple. I don’t affect eternity, Christ does. There’s not much I have to do. Just stop and listen to Him, let Him guide the classes.

In All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren writes, “For when you are in love you are made all over again. The person who loves you has picked you out of the great mass of uncreated clay which is humanity to make something out of, and the poor lumpish clay which is you wants to find out what it has been made into.”

We are poor lumpish clay. We all want to find what we have been made into. And I have found my creation - teacher. By Him, through Him, and for Him. Amen.

These stories we publish each week, they are stories of hope. According to Michelle Alexander, “Today there are more black men under correctional control - in prison or jail, on probation or parole - than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.” It would be all too easy to write stories of gloom and despair, to tell of the heartbreak we encounter week in and week out. We could throw our hands up and say it’s all too much, we’re just too small, we can’t really make a difference. And sure, we might not see the immediate fruits of our labor – many of our students will remain in prison for decades.

But eternally, a difference is being made. And that, friends, is all that matters.

Have a blessed week.

Spencer