Matthew Robinson

So it hasn’t so much been a good day for me.  Many thanks to all who have called and checked to see if I was still alive after I left this morning.  For several hours, I didn’t want to be alive.  I just wanted my mommy and to feel all better.  In a nutshell: my body started telling me at about 2:30 a.m. it wanted to purge itself, not just once, but 11 times, throughout the next 13 hours.

Yeah, I feel so weak in the knees I can hardly speak…but have taken the day off tomorrow to to get better.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I missed church today,  but I’m listening back now, and wow–what a sermon to lay out our next steps that Dean brought to us.

His challenge, as we tackle commitment issues with being followers of Christ and not with the church, our church, but YOUR church:

-Read.  30 Days.  Join the journey as we travel through John, Acts, and Proverbs throughout March as a church.  He will speak.  And you can find it outlined and a daily devotional at bible.thewelltallahassee.com.  If you’re going out of town for Spring Break, bring your At A Glance card with you (or print one off from the site) and follow along.  Just becuase you’re not here doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.  I can’t wait to hear the stories of how we’re spoken to through His words!

-Give.  It’s the “Ulysses Challenge” to give $50 more this month than you’ve ever given before (for some, that’s starting from $0. For some, that’s starting from the hundreds or thousands.  It’s to let us practice our committment, our obdience, and take our next steps at The Well together.

-Pray.  For your church.  Your Pastor.  Our staff.  For what we’re called to do in this city.

-Serve.  Fact of the matter, it takes man power to do what we do on Sundays.  Join in!

We began meeting in an 8 foot tall concrete fellowship hall that held 80 people two and a half years ago.  We had 50.  Then 85.  And then quickly just over 100.

We moved to Godby.  Which has 576 seats.  In an effort to reach more people.  We didn’t know how it would all work.  But we knew it’s where we were lead.  And we knew His hand was upon it.

We went to The Moon for our first Easter service in 2008.  That January we dreamed of it.  We didn’t know how it would all work.  But we knew it’s where we were lead.

We said we were going to build a Clean Water well in Rwanda at Christmas of 2008.  We needed $7,000.  People gave $14,000.  We didn’t know how it would work.  But we knew it’s where we were lead.

We said we were going to have 1,000 people at our next Easter service.  We were blessed with over 1,013.  We didn’t know how it would work.  But we knew it’s where we were lead.

We said we were starting a morning service.  That just.  keeps.  growing.  We didn’t know how it would work.  But we knew it’s where we were lead.

And today, today Dean shared about what we don’t know how it will all work.  But where we know we’re being led:

We’re hiring another full time staff member that will serve as our Kids Director and much more, and
We’re taking steps to move to a 7 day a week building.

That takes two things:

His hand is upon it all, and
our committment.

And we know we’ve got both.

Here we go!

Some Dean-isms:

• No one ever likes DTRs at Dairy Queen
• What in the heck does a “soft-commitment” even mean?
• When He rose from the grave, it was kind like his Toby Keith “How Do You Like Me Now?” kinda thing
• Salvation is free, but following Jesus is not cheap.
• When you are a Christian, ever single day you attend a funeral service, and that funeral is your own.  You wake up and say “I am not God…”
• Did we really know what we were signing up for?
• All those things are probably true, but what if God’s called us to do this and His hand’s upon it?
• If there is a God, has He spoken?
• There’s 31 days in March…I don’t know why we only did 30 days, but that can be your “Woo, no bible today, let’s read Harry Potter for the 5th time day.”
• “Here’s why we talk about money: because Jesus said “where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”  So if we didn’t talk about money, we’d be saying we didn’t care about your heart.”
• “I don’t want to be known for having the best looking girls in town (we do), but I don’t want to be known for that…”
• “I want to be known for “wow, those people, they care about people who are far from God.”
• “We think it’s time to move.”
• Because there was a mission, He started His church…

The class calendars in my education courses are jam packed.  They’re laid out with 16 weeks at a glance, planned to the day, with my days off and theirs, when assignments will be introduced, when they’re due, and detailed with what we are discussing on any given class meeting.  There is hardly any wavering.  I like having a plan as a teacher, and as a student, I craved one from my college professors.  I teach the classes I wish I would have had.  That class calendar…it’s filled with witty topics-of-the-day like “Education According to Oprah” or “I Don’t Wanna Be Like Mary Kay Laterno” or “How to Teach the Kid You Can’t Stand.”

One of those days…it’s called “The Art of Questioning.”  I think this is one of the most difficult things to master in front of a classroom, and beginning teachers only get better at it with experience.  When I teach, I always have this thought in the back of my mind:

“Never leave the drive in window without checking the contents of the bag.”

You’ve been there.  You’ve done it and had it done to you.  You pull away without what you intended.

And in too many classrooms, that’s what happens on a day to day basis.

It’s my job to gauge my student’s understanding.  Innately, every pupil can nod their head up and down when the person they’re barely listening to in the front of the room beckons “Everyone understand?”  (a horrible question to ask a student, by the way, and they’ll often nod yes even if they don’t understand, and often it’s just because they want to “go”).  There are ideas like wait time and using non-judgmental language and framing a question to promote the best responses.  I’m no expert, but it’s something that’s always on my mind.

About those best responses…I often will ask “What questions do you have for me?”

After the past few weeks of inquiring, I really think I need to start asking:

“What questions do you have for me ABOUT MATH?”

You see, I teach those students who will ask me anything, regardless of it’s context or appropriateness.

You can only imagine…

On observing:

I have this one student in a Tuesday/Thursday class who is totally crushing on a girl.  Who’s name I’m sure he doesn’t know.  But who, unbeknownst to her, makes his day by just showing up.  I’m always at class early, and I often just chit chat and watch the hubbub of action as the final minutes before class pass.

And yesterday, Mr. Crusher, with each passing minute, kept looking towards the door, in hopes that his Juliet would arrive.  You could just sense his anticipation as four minutes before class turned into a minute after we had started, and his desires for seeing his Miss Make-My-Day began to fade.  The last student arrived about 9 minutes late.  He knew.  He knew at that point his dreams were dashed and dared not to be realized on this afternoon.  I could feel his disappointment.  His longing. His now-I’m-depressed-because-I-only-came-today-because-I-was-hoping-she’d-be-here-and-maybe-this-would-be-the-one-day-she’d-ask-me-to-borrow-a-pen-or-our-eyes-would-meet-when-we’d-laugh-at-one-of-Doc’s-jokes-or-she’d-recognize-she-needed-a-study-partner-and-would-waltz-over-to-me-and-ask-if-I-wanted-to-study-or-she’d-choke-on-those-almonds-she-always-eats-and-would-need-a-hero-and-I’d-Heimlich-her-and-I-know-how-to-cause-I-googled-it-just-in-case-she’d-ever-need-me-to-do-it-to-her-and-I’d-and-save-her-life-and-we’d-live-happily-ever-after-forever state was noticeable for the briefest of moments.  I’m rooting for Mr. Rose-are-Red to work it up enough to just talk to his Dream Girl.  He’s got 8 weeks.

Perhaps, until, happily ever after.

I’m a lister.  The notepad on my iPhone is a physical scratchpad for my brain.  It’s filled with randoms, tid-bits, over-hearings and things I can’t forget.  My Gmail “Drafts” folder is the same way.  I don’t know what I’d do without it in keeping up with things.  It’s a juggled archive of what’s on the top of my mind at any given time and what I want to come back to.  I can triage and sort and categorize and revise and synthesize.  Here are some glimpses into the Drafts and Notepads I’ve been sorting and cleaning out this morning:

• “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
• I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
• I can’t imagine not.
• We will always be faced with uncertainty.
• supercheapsigns.com
• Bold.  Wise.  Obedient.  Sacrifice.
• We trust Him with our salvation but not our security
• We want for them more than they want for themselves.
• Chocolate Cake.  Once a month.  Why not more?
• Who is God, and how do we respond?
• The person that God has for you is not going to be someone that you like less than someone you liked before.
• Every quarter has two sides.
• Interest rates = Libor and what’s tied to the Margin index
• What if forever started today?
• 576 seats.  Y not all full?
• Personal walk.  Public witness.
• People are here one minute.  And then they’re not.
  
• Lamps plug into 65/71
• People at the top don’t work harder than you. They work MUCH MUCH harder.
• Listen to Both Sides Now
• Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
• It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.

Around 7:30 a.m. Jeremy and Beth Button welcomed 5 pound 14 ounce Baby Button #2 into the world.  His name’s still being decided, but I’ve settled on one: Absolutely Adorable (okay, that’s two).  Pretty much the most amazing person I’ve ever held (I was scared to death) at 8 1/2 hours old, he’s definitely a keeper!

It’s only Wednesday.

But I’m stoked about it.

Because this Sunday…

We’re going to talk about some things we’ve never talked about.

And we’re going to do some things we’ve never done.

It’s a Sunday you wont want to miss.

It’s a Sunday you need to start thinking now about whom you’re going to invite and bring with you.

It’s a Sunday I think we’re going to look back on, and say…it was that Sunday.

This Sunday…

It’s almost here!

Miss Angela Winsor joined one of The Well bands yesterday.  Angela’s voice: simply.  amazing.

The video is on the fritz, but the audio is oh my so good.  Listen to Angela and Todd leading Desert Song (LOVE this song…Dean and I have been wanting to do it for months) from last night.  Oh my so good.

Download here: Desert Song

Take equal parts Parmesan crisp ceasar salads, white sangria,  lobster spread, homemade jalapeno poppers, and carrot and strawberry cupcakes, and you’ve got an evening of fun for my dearest friend Kayla’s birthday tapas dinner with pals!

We had a fire drill this morning in the building I was teaching.  Everyone just kind of looked around.  I felt like none of us had done one of these since high school.  Finally I just said “let’s go” and most of them took that literally…they didn’t come back once the alarm stopped for us to go back in.

I’m excited to experience my third One Night Stand.  This time’s the charm!

I need $6,000 for a video switcher for The Well.  If you’d like to help us with this, please contact me. (I know this seems crazy.  But you never know what could happen if you just ask.  So I am.  Thank you so much in advance for your generosity :)

Earlier in the week I met up with an FSU grad student of mine who I’ve only taught in online courses over the past two years.  She needed some info for a project, and we forgot to tell each other what we looked like when we met for coffee.  It was pretty funny searching for someone without knowing what to look for.  We eventually did connect.

I’m very into Pink right now.  The singer.  Absolutely not the color.  Her songs are earworms for me.

I”m stoked about rumors of a new singer at church this week.  And I think you will be, too.

The worst (and only bad thing) about making these cakes is that I don’t get to try them.  I really, really, really like trying the cakes I make.

My best line of the last seven days: “I am a man.  I do not decorate.  I assemble.”

I just can’t get into the Winter Olympics.  I mean I LOVE Bob Costas, and the story lines and emotion manipulating background music usually works, but give me some track and field and swimming any day over all of this.

LOST is blowing my mind.

I’m reading Flowers for Algernon and it’s blowing my mind, too.

I saw my first Snookie look alike on campus today.  I mean, it’s 47 degress here in Tallahassee.  And the sun hasn’t shined in weeks.  One should not be so orange.

Another day of interviews meant I sported a new brown suit and rocked a paisley blue tie.  Sharpness I tell you.

And I have this student that we’ll call Serena. She weighs somewhere in the range of, and I’m estimating here, 327 pounds.  She is a large, black, mid-30’s woman.  When I walked into the one class I met with today I heard this:

“Doctuh Rob-i-sun, you look fly.  I’ve never thought about a white man in the way I might start thinking aboutch you.”

:)

It was also Children’s Day in my education course.  My future teachers welcomed 80 kindergartners for an hour of controlled chaos.  They were so cute, so little, and so filled with energy.  I was proud of the activities my students put on, and Chuck E Cheese himself (one of my students!) even showed up for the fun.