What do you love most about your job?
I love the people I see every day at The Ambrose School, from the students to parents to teachers to administrators to staff. It’s a tight community and I’m grateful to be a part of it. I’m glad to get paid to read books and to talk about them with others who cherish them. It’s a good living.
What's your definition of success?
For a short, beautiful summary of the good life, I think it is hard to beat Ecclesiastes 3: “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.”
Outside of your work, what skills or talents do you have that might surprise people?
A few years ago, I started running and that’s been a refreshing challenge. I’m now in my first year as an assistant coach of our cross-country team. It is such an intense sport to watch. It requires great discipline. Watching the athletes finish their races well is quite moving to me.
What are some causes you care about?
My church’s Safe Families chapter, an organization that helps churches care for families and children in short-term crisis situations. My wife and I enjoy helping our neighbors close to home in ways that are unmediated by screens. I’m for face-to-face neighborhood life and against social media. As a teacher, I see firsthand how damaging it is when our young people are drowning in the world that social media and endless screen proliferation creates. Parents should do all they can to help their kids build habits that privilege the world they actually live in, rather than the world of screens and social media.
Who is someone you admire, and why?
Eric Liddell is one of my heroes (Vangelis’s Chariots of Fire soundtrack has been a favorite since childhood--my parents had the soundtrack on vinyl). After the Olympics he was a missionary to China, and later died in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Every account of the camp says that he ran his race with integrity until the end, looking out for others even as he was starving and suffering himself. Langdon Gilkey, who was with him in the camp but survived, said of Liddell: “It is rare indeed when someone has the good fortune to meet a saint. He came as close to it as anyone I have ever known.” I take Gilkey’s word for it!
PULL QUOTE: "Parents should do all they can to help their kids build habits that privilege the world they actually live in, rather than the world of screens and social media."