Education is when all the societal issues we have not resolved meet in a warehouse of the immature with the in-process adults who are sharing information and survival to students for a culture which might not be recognizable in five years. This almost sounds like a recipe for chaos. To some degree it is. The true power in the process are the relationships and the work on learning relationships with the good, bad, and indifferent in the system as you gather information and training. It is learning to walk the path of people in all you do that will forever be the center of all you do in life because relationships are often longer lasting and more powerful than situational experiences.

I spent thirty-three years working as one of the in-process persons in a warehouse of the immature called a high school. Over 5,000 young humans went through my classes during that time. There were no duplicates, no clones, all unique, all one of a kind miracles and each with their own gifts – none left out. I still have ties to those I worked with and those I worked for. The power of these ties were felt again recently as I attended a retirement party for a revered friend.

I am still reeling from the emotional stirring of revisiting those connections. I realize how easy it is to overlook the power of relationships until they are stirred to the surface or you recognize those experiences working in the background, writing the script of today’s behavior. The circumstances and events are strong, but the people in those circumstances and events are stronger. I am buffeted by the circumstances but cut or healed by the people.

The sometimes overwhelming power of such things can clearly show the limits of an individual within the confines of their own life. It can reveal the need for persons or powers beyond their own strength to intervene and provide what a person can’t do by themselves. Moments like these verify the true reason I want to be a Christian. To me, getting “saved” isn’t just an event but the process of dealing with life under the leadership and power of Jesus who can and does intervene continually to rescue and train. He who is the embodiment of the virtues of heaven can apply those virtues into the life of someone not strong enough to have the virtues within himself without help.