It’s happening. What’s happening you ask? God is happening.

In our Sunday School class that my wife and I teach, it’s happening. We have been teaching for about three years now, and our original vision of what our Sunday School class would look like has truly taken shape.

So far, we have studied the books of Genesis and Exodus, taking a year to go through each. This year, we are studying Romans. We are on our second time reading through the chapters. When we left Exodus, we landed in Romans 9. There is a connection from Exodus to Romans 9. Then we read and studied through the end of Romans 16 and then continued in Romans 1. We are now focusing on Romans 12. When you read any verse in the Bible and discuss it, you can take many directions. Commentators don’t always have the same material of focus. Also, the season of your life can widen your eyes in a direction you never would have thought. You may not be surprised, but I like to connect my story to whatever it is I am studying. It doesn’t need to be my story about addiction, molestation, anger, or bipolar disorder either. (Read Phil’s Bio) It can just be my story about what happened that week and how I handled it.

Personally, my vision for our Sunday School class looked like this: The Bible is our book. Together, we choose what we want to study in the Bible, then we study it and understand it through the Socratic Method as a discussion group. The Socratic method is shared dialogue between teacher and students by using thought-provoking questions.

The first part of this vision was the easy part. The discussion part has been more challenging. In the beginning, those in our class who spoke did so with limitation. When we would ask questions, we would sometimes get silence, and my wife and I would have to answer our own questions. Sometimes we had to drag it out of them. As I reflect on where we were back then and where we are now, it seems there has been a learning process for all of us in just the functionality of our group. As our group has grown closer and we have become more comfortable with each other, discussion has come easier.

This week was awesome. As we were going through the opening of our lesson plan topic, an unprompted deep question from a class member was shared, and the discussion from the class just gelled. Our discussion went off the original plan that my wife and I had, and I loved it! We were totally off our planned primary topic but still on the topic of the chapter we are studying. We were in a round-robin-style, back-and-forth deep discussion with the entire class. Our role as teachers changed. It was no longer providing the spark for discussion with thought-provoking questions. Our role was now guiding the class through the discussion with thought-provoking questions that somehow led us back to our original lesson plan. You want to talk about kewl? I was super thrilled with our class this past Sunday.

Next week, we will get back on track to our originally planned lesson focus that was planned for this past Sunday: Spiritual Gifts. This is what we want to talk about. What is your spiritual gift(s)? I have never had anyone talk to me about my spiritual gift(s), and I have never been a part of a conversation where others tell me what their spiritual gift(s) are. Why is that? My best guess? Fear.

Stay tuned for a post on Spiritual Gifts later this week.

This is how I want to close out this post. It’s Happening! Not my way but God’s way. Here are just a couple of examples:

1. In my vision of my Sunday School class, we would be teaching the larger class of adults that was given to us when we filled the gap during and after COVID when the previous man who was teaching stated he was stepping down. However, the man returned, and the majority of the adults went back to his class, which was also the class my wife and I attended. If we weren’t teaching, we would go back there too! So, the vision didn’t work out the way we thought it would. At our best, we were a group of 14. However, today, without Wayne (Read About Please Pray for Wayne) and a few others, we are just 10 strong. Not my vision. However, I do not know what is in store for us. Maybe that’s it! Maybe we are just 10 strong (Read about numbers in God’s Book) and that is how it’s supposed to be. Maybe God has other plans for us and our class. In the end, I really don’t care. I am humbled by the fact that God allows me to be part of the group of 10. What we are accomplishing is truly awesome, and I am so glad to be part of it.
2. I am in the infancy of this website. I have a theory. The theory is if I don’t have anything to sell, then I don’t have any way to make an income to sustain this website, and I surely don’t have anything to give to other Jesus-centered ministries. (Read my mission statement) Two weeks ago, I was designing a product with the Give Your Story logo, and it struck me that I had another logo design that I had made from a previous thought I had from a little over a year ago. I had made the Kewl Monkey Logo and it felt like the right direction to go so I went with it, but the product choice ended up being a bust. You may have seen it briefly listed in The Fun Shop. It was a bucket hat.      (The featured picture for this post.) It looked great until I got the sample. I put it on, and my wife said “UH – NO”. “That looks like a Halloween hat.” I was disappointed, to say the least. I felt dejected, and truly, I felt like I missed what felt like a nudge from God. Really, Phil? How did you miss this? Are you doing God’s will, or are you doing Phil’s will? If I am brutally honest, I felt like crap, and yes, it sucked to feel that. The hat landed on the floor next to the hamper near a pile of clothes, out of sight, out of mind. That hat was a severe disappointment, and I put it out of my mind.  This is how God works:  We had family over on Sunday. The oldest son has a very significant disability. He has had well over a hundred surgeries and procedures, and he is just 14. He lost his mobility about two years ago, and they have been on a quest of hope to help him walk again. While they were visiting, the plan was that we were all going to go swimming. But the rain would not let up, and we could hear thunder in the distance. The thought came to my wife that if their son had a hat to cover his head, maybe we could go swimming. With that, Grace suggested I go get the hat. Well, suffice it to say the hat fit him perfectly, and I officially have my first Kewl Monkey! (Read the Kewl Monkey Story)

Look, people. Maybe you just think all this is just a coincidence? Not me! For me, these stories are God working his hand in ways I cannot comprehend. We need HOPE! We need Hope for Wayne that he will return to the best quality life that he can.  We need hope for our Sunday school class members that they may learn his word and use it to fill their lives and teach others what they have learned.  We need hope that YOU will gain A GREATER HOPE from what you read here and use it to make changes within and pass it on to someone else.  We need HOPE for a little boy that he can walk again. He has my first Kewl Monkey hat that represents HOPE. Hope for you and FOR HIM!  He also plans on wearing the Kewl Monkey hat I gave him at the beach this weekend!

HOPE LIVES!

It’s Happening!