All Together

   the disciples were all together in one place.

 - From the Second Chapter of Acts

Since the first of this year, I have enjoyed a wonderful connection with an on-line school, The Michigan Virtual Charter Academy.

My first assignment was to teach about 180 sixth graders social studies, in three different sections. And at this time I am team-teaching with two colleagues, about two hundred high schoolers, also Social Studies (American History).

Scores of students, and I, will gather in a virtual classroom. You can't see all of the students. There are ways to monitor their participation. It is a very efficient way for a child to learn. The parents are more engaged. If they need to take a break to step outside their own back yard for a few minutes, they can do that. 

Of course, you lose the advantage of being in person, where you can discern visual cues from the students. But on the plus side, you don't have to worry about the requisite five or six clowns and their constant distractions.

You end up wanting to get together with your students, in person, when you can. I was fortune to proctor some tests, which have to be done in person. And while there I could meet several of my students. 

A phone call to a loved one can be a wonderful thing. If the miles separate you, the time flies by and you have such a good time laughing and talking to him or her. But it always comes back to planning an in-person reunion. 

Family reunions are great. You don't have to plan specific activities. Just being with them is enough. And you deeply miss those that do not attend. 

The Lord made us so that we do better in-person. The Internet is scientific proof that we are not made to communicate, and operate as a group, digitally. Already, plenty of research shows that there is always a problem in on-line communication. The only group behavior that thrives is when people gang up to shame another. 

God waited until the disciples were all together in one place . . . and of one mind and spirit, to spread His Holy Spirit upon them. Those are the conditions that are a pre-requisite to God working miracles. 

As we send "thoughts and prayers" to the victims and survivors of the most recent school shooting . . . it occurred to me that I do not pray enough about it, if at all. I say I am praying, but that doesn't really mean I do pray. If anything, it is counter-productive to tell someone you will pray, and then don't.

Let's pray for the right things:

1. That we call get into one accord, one spirit, one voice, one mind
2. That we make it so, by getting ourselves into one place. 
• Go to church
• Visit
• Send messages
• Go to reunions
• "Show up"
• But when you do . . . get with others and pray for unity.
3. Pray for victims, yes, but pray that the school shooting cease
4. Pray that God make you, and me, vessels that will end the school shooting, by do what we can where we are.

Let's get together. 

Get together.