greenfootball.jpgHomeschool touchdown! Scoring more points than your opponent is the ultimate aim of an American football game. The team with the ball, known as the offense, strategically moves up the field in anticipation of scoring through passing, field goals, or extra points. The defending team, anticipating the offensive strategy, does their best to protect their end zone and prevent the offensive team from scoring. If the defensive team intercepts the ball, the roles are reversed.

Life as a Christian homeschooler is like football in a basic sort of way. Some days you advance at a quick pace with little interference. Other days you spend enormous amounts of time defending your position against aggressive opponents. But whether you find yourself on the offensive or the defensive your immediate call as a follower of Jesus Christ remains the same:  wait on Him to call the home school plays.

Promise

After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His followers for a period of forty days.  Right before He was taken up to Heaven, He shared with them two critical pieces of information for living the post-resurrection life:  (1) you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and (2) you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  (Acts 1:8 NRSV)  This two-fold promise requires nothing of us.  Jesus shows grace to those who follow Him by abiding with us through the constant presence of His Spirit.  Secondly, simply by abiding in His Spirit, our lives will be different, and people will know it from our closest family and friends to our casual acquaintances.  We cannot DO anything to earn His Spirit, and we are not called to DO anything to be His witnesses.  God is the one acting, and all we have to do is wait for His instructions and be obedient under all circumstances whether they are tough or easy.

Wait

Before Jesus left the disciples, He told them to wait for the promise of the Father.  (Acts 1:4 NRSV)  Wait.  Expect.  Be ready and available when the gift of His Spirit comes.  Initially, every person who is called to follow receives the gift of His Spirit.  After that, we wait on Him to deliver specific directions for living in real time every day.  Our anxiety or impatience is fruitless because He is always faithful and delivers what we need at just the right moment.

Some of my kids’ home school friends like to log on to Google Talk and call each other through the computer.  The funny thing about these calls is that these teens don’t just get to the point of the call and then disconnect  like a busy adult who quickly takes care of business.  They leave the communication line open while they are working on other things so that they can talk whenever they feel led to talk.  To a pragmatic person like me, this phenomenon of open chat seemed strange at first.  Connor would be working away on home school debate research when all of a sudden one of his friends would make some comment.  Connor would respond, then it would get quiet again for a while.  Sometimes the periodic conversations are frivolous, and sometimes  the conversations are very serious, but the fact of the matter is this:  these friends are in relationship, and they are immediately available to each other.

Now I see how live chat is like our relationship with the Lord.  Because of His constantly abiding Spirit, He never disconnects from us, nor do we want to disconnect from Him.  Sometimes the chatter is relatively inconsequential, and sometimes there are urgent messages that require immediate response.  If we listen, we will hear Him leading, advising, suggesting, and requiring.  He calls the plays minute by minute, day by day, in rough times, and in easy times, whether we find ourselves on the offensive, or whether we find ourselves on the defensive.  All we have to do in our Christian homeschool is listen and obey.

Obey

In the promise of Acts, Jesus says we will “be” His witnesses.  The word witness is used as a noun and not as a verb.  We are naturally His witnesses by sheer association with His indwelling Spirit and our response to the guidance of His Spirit.  We are not called “to” witness; we “are” His witnesses.  Of course, being good witnesses requires that we respond in obedience to the daily conversation that He is having with us.  Some days are worse than others.  Some days are chaotic with seemingly endless demands.  Some days  are more relaxed and offer time for rest.  Irregardless of the nature of the day, Jesus’ Spirit is available, and He is ready to lead you.  Don’t deceive yourself into acting without consulting Him…you don’t see the entire picture so your call may not be adequate to advance or defend the play.  He is the one with all the answers.  He has already written a comprehensive playbook for the game.  He knows all the possibilities, and He wants you to succeed.  After all, you are His witness.  You represent Him to your family, your neighbor, your friends, your grocer, your dry cleaner, your hair dresser, and every other individual you encounter whether in person,  on the telephone, or in written correspondence.  Let Jesus be the Coach who calls the home school plays on a minute by minute basis.  All you have to do is wait and obey.

* * * * *

My sincere apologies to those of you who recently received two strange email from me:  one on Mark Twain and the German language and another long one on several published posts.  I did not intend to send you spam!  My internet service provider was making some technical changes to my  website and Feedburner mistakenly thought that I meant to send you email.  Thankfully, Midphase has corrected the problem.  More  exciting changes are coming soon with a brand new website design and the announcement of my new  book for the Christian homeschool, Trivium Mastery:  The Intersection of Three Roads, but I haven’t planned any more erroneous emails.  Thanks for sticking with me, and happy homeschooling!