Whew, Just Made It

Luke 17:5-10

Tomorrow is the last day of the first quarter of public school in Hawaii. All of the kids know exactly what grade they will be getting. Either the students have spoken to the teachers individually, checked their grades online, or they were given an exact copy of what their report card would look like in a particular subject. There are no surprises as to why a student would be failing, passing, or somewhere in-between.

The other day, as copies of their report cards were being passed out, I stood next to a student as he received his copy. He took a look at the paper in his hand and gleefully exclaimed, "Yes! I made it!" I looked at his grade and he was getting a 62% in the class; barely a passing D.

The teacher told the students that the progress report they were just given had to be signed and returned, and would count as points for this quarter. The young man's shoulders slumped, his head went down, and a deep sigh escaped his down-turned mouth. He spoke out loud to nobody in particular, "There goes my D."

He told those of us at his table that his parents are never home, and when they are they don't pay any attention to him. Because of that he doesn't even try to ask them to sign anything that comes from the school. Everyone at the table encouraged him to try anyway and just ask. It's his grade and he needs to do whatever he can to keep it.

Being his real friend, I told him he wouldn't be in this predicament if he came to class everyday and did his work to the best of his ability. I looked at his progress report and saw a lot of missing grades due to him not being in class. The work he was missing cannot be made up because they literally are grades for being in class on time and doing the work assigned for the first 15 minutes of the class.

I followed that speech with one that told him to go home, get his progress report signed, and bring it in the next day. I also told him that next quarter he needs to just come to class. I pointed out that whenever he did turn in work he got a grade no less than a B. Imagine, I told him, if he turned in all his work. He might have an A.

The passage from Luke reminds me that sometimes we're like this young man. We go through life doing just enough to get by. Sometimes we get caught up in the comforts of doing things the same way and we forget that if we try just a little harder we would find rewards which surpass any image we have of our self.

The young man brought in a signed progress report yesterday and kept his passing grade. I smiled at him, gave him a pat on the shoulder, and told him he did good. He smiled at me and said, "Thanks, Mister. Next quarter I'll do better."