Today's passage is Daniel 12:5-13.
Daniel sees two more figures by the river, making a trinity. Daniel asks when the last things he has been shown will occur. He gets an answer he doesn't understand so he asks another question to which he is told that it's not his to know.
Jesus says it's closed up and sealed. He tells Daniel to go his way and in the end he will be blessed.
* What trial do I need to endure? What, like Daniel's questions, do I have to lay down?
The episode of the boy throwing a violent punch, the events leading up to it, and the ongoing issues following it are all part of God's training for me, and I'm not enjoying it at all.
It's causing emotional havoc not just in the boy's family, but in the punched boy's family, in my vice principal, my executive officer and my admissions director. And in me. It's bringing to the fore my authority and responsibility as principal.
It's showing me what kind of cowardly mind I have, wanting to run away from the problem, give it to others, and do something fun or easy.
It's also showing me what a hating mind I have towards problem students. To help me with that, God has given me three or four problem students to teach in summer school, but that's another issue or at least a small extension of the bigger one going on now. I need to lay down my hating mind and put on God's mind.
The real issue is saving students not throwing them away. I've preached that since I arrived but now a big test has arrived. Will I see things more objectively so that I can act with God's mind? Can I persuade my fellow school officials to one mind of hope and help in this instance? I need prayer and repentance to effect it.
Because I delayed in making the correct decision, I have caused confusion and distress among my officials. I knew what I had to do after the incident, but I didn't act. I dithered and now I have a bigger mess to clean up with God's help, I pray.
The boy who punched needs love.
His parents have failed him and he's lashing out.
He now has his parents' attention because he's created a family crisis.
They too need God's help and this is it.
God made me the leader of my school and, though I have done much to organize the place with his guidance, I have not become the leader he wants me to be. This incident shows me that. It humbles and scares me.
I understand Daniel's anxiety because I too have been given a vision of the battles in my school. I'm in one now and it's my fault.
I have to lay my hating mind down in order for God to truly work through me. I have to lead my school with God's love and authority not worldly attitudes of vengeance.
I will share more of my testimony to the parents of the puncher, especially about my mother's favoritism, which is also a problem in the boy's family.
Life is hard, but God has authority over all. I have the weekend to pray and repent and fast in order to be ready for God's work on Monday in his school with this crisis.
