To me, one of the dangers of American culture is that ambition, success, and potential always seem inseparable from big numbers. Most people think that ambition must involve a bunch of whatever you are aspiring toward. For example, singers think they are legitimate when they “hit it big”. Writers want to sell a million books. The more you accumulate, conquer, sell, buy, deliver, or even eliminate the ‘better’ you are. Values in ambition, success, and potential are quantity based.

What if someone dropped out of high school, went to work at a fast food chain and totally followed God’s plan?

Our education system in America is institutionalized. At the turn of last century, we tried to crank kids out of school just like Henry Ford cranked cars out of his factory. Now, teachers are trying to get as many kids as possible to pass a test. Where are our priorities? Our systems need to support (and fund) the hiring of more teachers so they can spend time with less kids. In our neighborhood, the system just built a $12 million elementary school. Before the school was even open the PTA was organizing a ‘benefit’ and needed people to donate popcorn machines and snowcone machines so they could make money to support the PTA. That grieves me. We just spent $12 million on a building and we need a popcorn machine to raise a few hundred dollars for our PEOPLE? Where are our priorities?

Where is the value of small, high quality items? Small careers that mean a lot to God’s Kingdom? Investing in one person instead of 1000? Remember, Jesus ministered primarily to 12 men and a couple of women. This strategy was setting up a couple thousand years of the gospel message spreading like wildfire.

-robin