OK, now this is what I really like to see.
Excerpt:
Set up my classroom today…it’s an ordeal.
I have this gigundous bookshelf next to my desk that contains the books I’ve read. My theory is that if I want to make my students readers, I must model it myself. In order for that to happen, they need to see me as a reader, which means they should see what I read.
If a student’s parents sign a waiver, the student has permission to check out any book in my room, including from my shelf (the lone exception is that books from my shelf can’t leave the room–I’m very territorial about my books.
).
While I have a large range of reading interests, there are many Christian themed books. Science, philosophy, theology, history–it’s all represented.
I can see some students balking at this. “Isn’t that illegal?” they might ask. “Hey! Them’s religious books, and that violates the separation of church and state!” they might quip.
One time during a discussion at my previous school in which a religious question came up, a student objected: “my junior high teacher told me that it’s a sin to talk about religion in the classroom.” Now there’s a contradiction if I ever heard one!
There’s no way I’m gonna let some ill-thought out one liner from a student or even parent get me to back down. I’ve thought about this, and I have a ready response.
Read the whole thing! He goes into details explaining why he is not intimidated by the threat of people being offended. This is a great post. Very inspiring!
And now I want you all to consider trying to be like Rich! If you have a workplace, consider adding something that identifies you as a Christian. Rich just got married, and it hasn’t affected his level of bravery one bit! One of the main reasons I avoid marriage is because to me it means the end of adventures. I just cannot believe that my wife would encourage me to be brave. But Rich’s example should be an inspiration to us all!
This is exactly what I wanted to do in life, but by then I was committed to computer science… I dream of teaching! But I’m not sure how to get into it, and I don’t want to be in a union.
To learn more about bravery in the workplace
Listen to some lectures by my favorite Christian of all, the one I try to emulate most in my day to day life.
Dr. Walter L. Bradley
- Ph.D. in Materials Science, University of Texas at Austin, 1968
- B.S. in Engineering Science, University of Texas at Austin, 1965
My favorite lecture of all time:
- Giants in the Land (low volume)
And variations of his “Giants in the Land” lecture that I like:
Other lectures:
Post what YOU do to be identified as a Christian in YOUR workplace in the comments!
WINTERY KNIGHT 
Well… That really was inspiring! :)
I don’t know whether anything that I did when I was working was as brave but I certainly tried letting people know I was a Christian and a very conservative one at that.
Every morning when I reached my cubicle, I made sure the three books I always carry with me in my handbag was out on my desk. The Bible, The Imitation of Christ and the God Calling. The last one is a book gifted to me by my sis which was written by 2 English woman called ‘The Two Listeners’ who apparently wrote what Christ told them to write. It is very inspirational and it helped me a lot when I was stressed out at work. It helped me de-stress so much that, my colleagues who were Non-Christians took time to read the book when they were stuck in writing a code for a particularly difficult application. :)
When you work in India, you’ll have to get used to your colleagues celebrating their festivities at workplace. One such festival is the Durga pooga, where they worship their goddess and put the thilak on things they work with. Obviously, software engineers work on computers and when ever they try putting the thilak on my desktop, I’ve resisted. I know it offended them but hey, my desktop is obviously tagged to me and I certainly don’t need a goddess’ help to work. But of course, I was always polite. Polite but firm.
As a software engineer you’d know that the cubicles will have the boards on which we write our to-do lists. Well, mine had Philippians 4:13 always written on it. My PM initially raised his eyebrow, but I told him, “Hey you give me way too many tasks to accomplish in too little time and I do need the strength to do ’em all, don’t I?”. When he was skeptical and asked how that verse would help, I always gave him my cheeky grin and asked “Doesn’t my work show?”. He knew it did and he never commented on it ever again! :)
Not really much, I know. But at least, it was something and I only wish I could be more braver and do more to engage people in listening to me as to why Christianity is THE one true faith. But of course, for that I still am working on equipping myself better.
LikeLike
Shalini, I am very impressed! This really is above and beyond the call of duty, and in a much more difficult environment than I face in the United States.
LikeLike
Good job being faithful in the small things. The truth is, that’s all anyone does. Even the great martyrs built their lives around simple and small steps of obedience.
LikeLike
Thanks for the link love, hoss.
LikeLike