At the beginning of the next semester, I plan to do this as part of my first lecture. See, I desire that they remember not only who teaches them but what, and I think this will do the trick.
The story is told of a man who went to the market looking for a new beast of burden. He came to a stall where the attendant claimed that a particular donkey could and would do anything for the owner without the owner having to be there to supervise and give further directions. "Yes sir," the barker claimed, "just tell this donkey what to do, and he'll accomplish any task."
Accordingly impressed, the man bought the donkey. He took it home, hitched it to the plow and told it to plow the field. The donkey did nothing. After several attempts to persuade the donkey to work, he returned to the market for a refund.
Rather than refunding his money, the clerk went back into his tent. He returned moments later with a 2"x4", which he then used to smack the donkey in the head. "Plow the field!" he commanded the donkey, which immediately began dragging the plow through the dirt of the marketplace.
Looking at the man to whom he had sold the donkey, the market barker said, "He will do anything you like, but you need to get his attention first!"
Think that will get their attention?
See, young people today pay attention to all sorts of things. Most of them are the adversary's fires of distraction. He will do almost anything to get them to waste their time doing neither what they like nor what they ought. Like Lewis teaches in Screwtape, adultery is no better than cards if cards will do the trick. As they look at and into their gardets, they pay less and less attention to where their attention belongs. They are not present, and therefore they cannot possibly be living in the present. It's kind of funny that George Lucas proved prophetic when Yoda says of Luke "Never his mind on where he was, what he was doing". Maybe the 2"x4" will help them focus.
See, young people today pay attention to all sorts of things. Most of them are the adversary's fires of distraction. He will do almost anything to get them to waste their time doing neither what they like nor what they ought. Like Lewis teaches in Screwtape, adultery is no better than cards if cards will do the trick. As they look at and into their gardets, they pay less and less attention to where their attention belongs. They are not present, and therefore they cannot possibly be living in the present. It's kind of funny that George Lucas proved prophetic when Yoda says of Luke "Never his mind on where he was, what he was doing". Maybe the 2"x4" will help them focus.
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