Responsibility leads to engagement, ??? leads to withdrawal

The Emerging Scholars Blog is hosting a discussion of Steven Garber's The Fabric of Faithfulness. I read this book a couple years ago, and am enjoying a reread.

One of the main themes (or, at least, how I would word it) of the book is that a burden of responsibility leads to engagement. My wife Amy and I were discussing this theme last night, and considered how such responsibility-based engagement, when pursued in a healthy community of fellow engagers, leads to a multiplicative cascade. The "community of fellow engagers" is one of the three goals that Garber encourages his readers to pursue (along with a worldview that inspires responsibility and a mentor to nurture that worldview).

We pictured the process as:

responsibility --> engagement --> multiplication/cascade

Yet many Christians and churches seem to exhibit disengagement, and feel their energies being sapped and dissipated. We came to the question of, "If a burden of responsibility leads to engagement, what kind of motivation leads to withdrawal?" In other words, what would replace ??? in the picture:

??? --> withdrawal --> sapping/dissipation?

What do you think?

Encouragement Mistiming

It's Week 8 of the semester - The week when...

• ...my students have learned all the skills they need to learn, but have to be reminded daily that they still apply.
• ...I have to lay down the law with some students and challenge them to manage their time better.
• ...I have to tell some students that they should consider withdrawing from a course.
• ...any special projects I wanted to start but haven't will have to wail until another semester.

This is the point in the semester when I have the greatest need of encouragement...

...and yet it's when encouragement is at its lowest. The irony is that those outside the educational world tend to think of offering encouragement at the very beginning of the semester (when we're running on the steam of excitement) or at the very end (when we've given up steam on the present semester and are hoping for a better run next time).

When have you experienced an encouragement mistiming?

Have we been here before?

This past weekend, my wife and I discussed our level of interaction during the day, concluding that it was not enough. I pointed out that I have a good fifteen minutes in the morning during which I eat breakfast, get dressed, and gather my things for the day--during all of which she could interact with me if she woke up about half an hour earlier than has usually her custom since she started law school.

This morning, she got out of bed as I was fixing for myself a bow of cereal. I offered to fix her a bowl, but (with one eye opened) she replied that it was too early for her to eat. So, I ate my breakfast while she sat beside me with one eye opened.

Suddenly, I heard the "whooshing" sound of a LOST flashback. "We've been here before," I said, "only last time, it was in reverse."

Five years ago, when we first got married, I was the one in graduate school and she was the working stiff. She asked me to wake up early enough to eat breakfast with her. I would wake up, but usually felt it was "too early to eat" (granted, this was 7:15 instead of 6:45), and so I would sit silently next to her while she (wide awake) ate her breakfast.

I pointed this out to her this morning. Suddenly (five years later), we understood each other.

When have you seen roles reversed, leading to a greater understanding of another person from earlier in your life?

Emotional Flashcards

I've posted a couple times about my emotional flashcards project. Here are some pictures of the cards in action...

I see this card more often than I'd like--but at least they're not frustrated!

This student often has trouble making up her mind how she feels... At least she's not bored or anxious!