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Getting Students to Think-For Their Own Good!

by Julie Walton, Ph.D./Calvin College

Part of being whole and well involves tending to our intellectual health.  This entails keeping an intentional eye on what we think, read, and say.  What are the things to think deeply about, and why should we think on these things?  The command is to love things that are pure and lovely, and of good repute.  This is what we are to think on.  But, the work of thinking stops us from setting aside times for thought.  The centerboard on a sailboat keeps the craft from being blown sideways in a broadside wind, allowing the sail to capture the wind and propel the boat forward.  But, whenever I intend to just sit and think, my mind is quickly blown off course by the telephone, a child, the sudden realization that the mortgage payment didn’t go out on Monday, or the sight of a cobweb up in the corner; my mind rarely gets out of the shallows into the deep water of contemplative thought or prayer because I fail, time and again, to become centered.

How does the shallowness of life manifest itself?  There are ten ways I can think of which daily threaten to blow my thinking off course (click on READ MORE).

Transforming Boys into Men: Coaches, Athletes, Fathers and Love

by Julie Walton, Calvin College

Last week, former pro football player Joe Ehrmann visited our campus to speak to coaches, athletes, fathers and sons.  Joe’s story is compellingly told in Jeffrey Marx’ book, “Season of Life:  A football star, a boy, a journey to manhood.”  (for more information, see Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx.

Joe, pastor of a large congregation, also coaches high school football in Maryland.  His prevailing philosophy is that our boys no longer have men to teach them what it means to be a man, and that sport is the perfect vehicle for those lessons.  Joe wants coaches to step in and step up, to mentor children, boys especially, in how to live relationally in ways that show them that life is not about winning, conquest or self-aggrandizement, but about serving others.