I should have checked immediately...walked out my classroom door to see about the commotion.
But right as I decided to halt instruction (for what felt like the hundredth time that hour), the hallway noises fell silent.
Later, I noticed this:
Yeah, I should have checked immediately.
Evidently a couple of nameless boys were “rough-housing” when they slammed themselves into the display case.
The one I paid for.
With my own money.
Replacing the plexiglass would cost the same as replacing the entire display case. So I’m faced with
- leaving it (ugly)
- replacing it (costly)
- removing it (time-consuming)
Upset With...
I’m not just upset with the boys who broke something for which I’d paid good money.
I’m upset with myself for buying them in the first place.
You see, this is one of four display cases that I ordered and had mounted on the wall outside my classroom.
My vision was that I would become the kind of teacher who displays student work.
- Their writing.
- Their art.
- Their photography.
But that was several years ago, and as you can see, all that’s in this one display case is a poster promoting a writing contest to my seniors.
The other three display cases?
Empty.
Why?
Oh, we could be here all day exploring the answer to that simple question! I’m…
- non-visual!
- over-committed!
- global-abstract (rather than concrete-specific)!
Broken Thinking
Yes, I’m frustrated that the boys broke the display case. But not just because of the money.
Mostly, it's because they made more obvious something that was broken from the start:
the idea that if I buy ___, I'll become someone who ___.
the idea that if I buy ___, I'll become someone who ___.
For me, it was the idea that if I bought the display cases, I’d become someone who displays student work.
You probably haven't bought a display case (or 4!) recently.
But perhaps you’ve bought...
But perhaps you’ve bought...
- ...a size-whatever dress, in hopes you'll become someone who has a size-whatever body?
- ...a gourmet cookbook, so that you’ll become someone who cooks amazing gourmet meals?
- ...a stenciling / scrapbooking / stamping / whatever-craft-is-hot-for-women-to-do-these-days kit, believing that this time you’ll become someone who stencils / scrapbooks / stamps / crafts?
Buying something to become someone who...is a temptation year-round. But for me, it peaks in December.
Everywhere I look, I see women who so-and-so better than I do. And it’s so easy to believe that if I buy such-and-such, then I will become someone who so-and-soes, too!
My broken display case has been a jarring reminder that buying something to become someone wastes the resources God’s entrusted to me.
And ultimately, buying to become wastes the someone who He’s already paid for me to be.
God bought you with a high price.
1 Corinthians 6:20a (NLT)
Your Turn:
- What items are you most likely to "buy to become"?
- What does it mean to you, in the midst of your daily life, that "you were bought at a price" (NIV)?
- Anything else on your heart!
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