A Tribute to Rob - To God be the Glory

Tuesday I took the day off of work to attend the funeral of a dear family friend.

This service was a tribute to his life. But in just the way he would have wanted: it was not about him, but about Jesus.

Rob lived a life in which he was passionate about Jesus. He wanted to learn more about Jesus through studying the Bible. Rob had his Masters of Divinity and had served as a pastor in the past, but even when leaving work in the church and working in “real jobs” he still devoured books and the Scripture. In 2002, Rob was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). As his physical condition deteriorated, he kept his mind sharp and his spirit fresh by continuing to read and study.

Rob wanted to exhibit Jesus in his daily life. His family life, public life, and every aspect in between that I knew of Rob were intertwined with a loving and gracious tenderness towards people and a steadfast contentment in all situations in which God placed him. Even as his ALS progressed, Rob never complained of his physical ailments, but took it all in stride as being exactly where God would have him be. Rob wholeheartedly believed that God, in His absolute sovereignty and wisdom, had Rob in this situation. Rob believed that God could and would be made much of in his physical condition. And believe you me, God was, has been, and is being made much of in the physical ailments that afflicted Rob and particularly in which the way Rob (and his whole family) handled those trials.

Rob also wanted to share Jesus with any and everyone with whom he came in contact. You would have been hard pressed to make it anymore than a few minutes in Rob’s presence without him, in some way or another, bringing Jesus into the conversation. He passionately desired that others know Jesus; to know Him in His suffering and the power of His resurrection. That Jesus Christ came to earth and died on the cross that we might have eternal life and, in that eternal life, glorify our God who is in Heaven.

As I sat and listened to the service honoring this man, and intended to glorify God, I knew that Rob would be more than happy to see his life’s passion continuing even after he had left us. That even in his death, God was and is being glorified.

I say all this to remind myself and anyone reading it, that “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” (C.T. Studd)

“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
-Ecclesiastes 2:11

I am far too guilty of waste. And I don’t expect this to change overnight. But I can’t help but pray that God continually brings Rob’s life to my mind and uses it to challenge and grow me into the man that He would have me be; a man who lives and dies as well as Rob did. To God be the Glory.

Vice-Principal says American Flag Shirt Offensive on Cinco de Mayo

So leave it to me to choose a controversial topic for my first blog…

Today I was sitting in the waiting room of Larry Bush’s Riverside Tire in Macon, waiting to get two new tires on my car, when a news story came on about five high schoolers who got in trouble for wearing American Flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

Here is the gist of the story (taken from an NBC article):
Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.

"They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended," Dominic Maciel, Galli's friend, said.

*Note: There may be more sides to this story. I'm not saying that the 5 students didn't provoke at all, but based on this article and a couple of others I've read, I haven't heard that. If that's true it can be considered. But whether that's true or not, this sounds like it was handled very poorly.

I won’t go off on this very long and I really won’t even go off as far on this as I could. I just want to comment and say that this is absolutely ridiculous. Let’s look at the core of this story:

Students living in America wear an American Flag shirt to school. Cinco de Mayo comes around—an unofficial Mexican Holiday (Yes, unofficial. It is not even an official holiday IN Mexico)—and all of a sudden it is unacceptable for these students to wear shirts heralding the country in which they live and go to school.

Does this not strike anyone else as absolutely absurd?! Can you imagine this story happening in any other country? Imagine a French or Mexican school. Say on the 4th of July, a French or Mexican student were to wear a shirt sporting their flag. There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that ANYTHING would be said or done about it.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying—I’m not saying that we should squelch out the celebration of diversity or other cultures or that Cinco de Mayo shouldn’t be celebrated. I’m just pointing out the absolute absurdity and hypocrisy of squelching American patriotism in order to allow for Mexican pride to dominate it for a day. Why can’t one exist alongside the other?

I’ll end with my opinion on how this needs to be handled. The vice-principal who took the action should issue a PUBLIC APOLOGY to the students whom HE OFFENDED by telling them their patriotism was unacceptable. I would love to see him removed from his position, but I seriously doubt that would actually happen.
I’m sure I could come up with more to say on this subject, but it would be at the risk of rambling on. Hope to hear your comments on this matter.

Here is the link to the full NBC article on the story:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Students-Wearing-American-Flag-Shirts-Sent-Home-92945969.html