God Sees The Best Of Me !

Chapters 3 and 4 of Tim Keller's Every Good Endeavor expanded vastly on the idea of work and the way God sees it as well as it's purposes. Chapter 3 begins with Keller describing to us our greatest work given to us by God namely our call to "fill the Earth and subdue it”. He expands on this idea of "subduing” the Earth by explaining it as more of a cultivation process. This idea makes the task itself more of a caretakers responsibility rather than a conquerors territory. We are God's representatives called to follow His pattern of development by fulfilling our individual callings. Keller also includes that we are called to creativity just as God called Adam to come up with names for the animals he wants us to create just like Him. and again

I attended a majority white high school, in respect to the student population. Afterward, I attended a historically black, all-male institution in Morehouse College. Continuing, I earned my Masters in Teaching at Bellarmine University, and lastly, I earned my doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from Liberty University. After high school, each school I attended had a religious affiliation: Morehouse – Baptist; Bellarmine – Catholic; and Liberty – Evangelical. Aside from Morehouse College, each school was a predominantly white academic institution. And while attending these schools, I found a apparent lack of attention that addressed the issues or perspective that African Americans may have in respect to leadership principles. Still, I enjoyed being in the minority because it afforded me an

So to start we flushed out the fact that everything is for God 's glory as we focused in on Romans 11: 36 which says this "for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." we then saw that God created us for work and that work is a good thing, this was seen all throughout Genesis where we see that God created man and put him in the garden to WORK and keep it. So in the first section we see that everything we do is for God 's glory, and that we will be held accountable for our actions on earth, this is where the idea of "our life on

Growing up as an African American in Winchester was an experience. It was not unusual for me to be the only student of color in class or a sports team; which bothered me at times, but I learned to accept the issue and figure out a way to fit in. I began to mimic my peers’ behavior; I walked like them, sought out similar clothing brands, I nearly convinced myself I thought like them. I basically created a superficial mask to hide my visible difference. And it worked, but, once I entered my two bedroom apartment on the “bad” side of town. My mask dissipated.

The town I grew up in was divided, Friendswood ISD against Clear Creek ISD. You could say I lived on the wrong side of the creek--or at least as wrong as upper-middle class, white suburbia can be. Because of where I lived, kids from FISD dominated the church close to me. At this church, as a student in CCISD, I was the minority. Friendswood kids believed we were all poor, stupid, drug addicts, and worse. I struggled fitting in at my own school; fitting in at this church was even harder. One day in Sunday school, we were all in groups working on a team building activity constructing towers out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Regina, the self-appointed leader of our group, was building the tower very tall and narrow. Having a basic understanding of balance and gravity, I suggested we make the base wider so the tower would not topple over.

I am eighteen years old and have had opportunity to live in and travel to, diverse places within the US. Born in California, raised in Texas, grew up in Arizona, and am currently rooted in Pure Michigan. Moving to Michigan I had to adapt to new High School Junior year, establishing new life and friends. Leaving Arizona was trialing for me but I did it with great faith. Prior to leaving Arizona, Sophomore year I had let my grades sink because of the hardships I was facing at the time, including my lack of self-confidence and the fear of moving again. However, relocating allowed me to regain my self confidence back and refocus my life on Christ. With the help of the gospel in my life I was able to pick myself up and dramatically raise my grades junior year. From being a low grade student sophomore year,

n Timothy Keller's book Every good Endeavor he explains the concept of aligning your personal work, calling, or vocation with God's. In the first chapter Keller starts it off by describing the "Design of Work” as the chapter's title mentions. Using scripture straight from the book of Genesis he points out that work was one of the first things that God put in place when he created mankind and creation. Much of what Keller is trying to communicate simply points to the idea that man was made to work. One particular instance where Keller points to this is when he says, "it is part of the blessedness of the garden of God.” He is explaining that work was not intended to apart of the punishment for sin, but rather that work was in place before sin

When I was in kindergarten and first-grade, I attended a private christian school in Reynoldsburg, Ohio called Brice Christian Academy. Moving to a public, out in the country, school the start of my second-grade year, I noticed there was a big difference in the way the students acted there compared to the private school. But not only were the students different, so were the classes as well. My take on starting somewhere new, I tended to do things on my own. Trying to make friends with people who are almost the exact opposite of everything you grew up with was not an easy task, this being relatable with Schmitt when she was trying to befriend her neighbors and not one wanted to partake in her greetings.

I grew up in small town known as Kinston, where most of my peers were underprivileged like myself. Instead of starting out in public school, I was enrolled into one of the two local charter schools. I was always put in the “smart” group in any activity, but once I started talking with public school kids and learning that we were being taught different made me doubt if I was truly was smart. When I was put in various community groups with majority public school kids, I felt outnumbered and uncomfortable because we had nothing in common. I started high school as a social outcast, but I made some really good friends. After I was put up against the public school kids, I did excel educationally. Instead of hanging out with my friends on the weekend,

My public high school had misbehaved students and kids who didn’t care much about school. This resulted in the school having a poor academic system, although I did well it didn’t do a good job of preparing me for what was next. I attended Trevor Day School which at the time was a top 50 private school in New York City. They were granted the privilege of being on this list by having great teachers, a good learning environment, and one of the most rigorous curriculums in the city. This was a very cutthroat society that I had yet to encounter. As expected it was a drastic change, everyone was wealthier than me, there was racial tension, and in some ways it felt as if these kids were somehow smarter than me. Nonetheless, I had yet to realize that they weren’t in fact smarter than I was they just obtained the necessary tools to succeed in such an environment. I was one of the only colored guys in the school and I was on the basketball team. It was obvious that I was on financial aid and many people thought that I was granted with too much and I would fail off. Up until this point in my life I earned everything I received, but this was different; this time it was given to me. Therefore, with a lot given to me there would be a lot expected of me. I knew this prior to arriving at school, there were already a lot of eyes and pressure on

While at employed at the Louisiana Methodist Children’s Home, I encountered children from various cultural context. The children were between the ages 12-17 with various religious beliefs, disabilities, sexual orientations, and economic status. In other words, not one child was the same as the others. As a result, I had to be open minded and careful not the generalize. As I worked with them, I learned to adopt a patient and understanding persona when interacting with them because of the different backgrounds. Because I was understanding and willing to learn about their experiences, regardless of the different backgrounds, the children felt comfortable enough to interact and relate to me. Because of the trust I had established with them, they

I got up in the morning like it was going to like any other day for me. On the way to the school, we drove through the local neighborhood and that it self-was an eye opening experience. My whole entire life I have been surrounded by elegant houses, but here it was not the case. There I saw abandoned and foreclosed houses where families were living in remodeled military barracks in cramped conditions with multiple families in a single house. When we finally arrived at the school and walked through the reinforced metal doors used to prevent break ins from occurring. It was what was inside of those doors that changed my outlook on society for the rest of my life. Inside I saw different races and ethnicities of students waiting to start their school day. On the contrary, to common belief, there were Caucasians, African-Americans, and Mexicans mingling altogether without any segregation. To the kids, race and ethnicity did not matter to they all viewed each other as equal and more importantly as friends. As the day went on I got to personally know a couple of students and a common thing came up and it was school. For the kid's school was their escape from poverty and domestic issues and while at school race and ethnicity never crosses their minds they do not see each white or black they see each other as classmates and

Growing up in public school until freshman year, my first day of Sophomore year at a private Christian school was very different. I was used to a diverse class of over 400 people and now my class consisted of thirty, all white students with the exception of one asian male. Everyone also had the same religious beliefs. The switch was shocking, but did not seem like it would be too challenging. For the most part I fit in, except for one thing: almost everyone’s parents had a happy marriage where their dad’s made money and their mom’s stayed home.

Coming from a diverse community to a predominantly all white community has been a slow transition. I’ve experienced situations where sometimes I question my identity and who I really am. I’ve experience microaggressions within my work environment and my internship at the Boys and Girls club in Mckinleyville. Kids are extraordinary, but are a mirror image of their parents or adult figures present in the household. You can see by the way kids talk to peers or adult figures, treat one another, that there’s an unfair thinking being embedded in their cognitive development. This will affect them in how they go about their day, who they chose to interact with, what they allow to happen and the type of

Although we were not saved by works, we are called to respond to God by doing the works he prepared for