Rich Dixon wants us to think about the actual task.

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Do you ever read one of Jon’s posts and find you can’t stop thinking about it?

I’m guessing we all identified to some extent with his comments last week about Hallmark Families. But as I cranked my bike the last few days, I found myself wondering if I expect a Hallmark version of the FREEDOM TOUR community.

I thought about my classroom. I began each year by articulating high standards and knowing kids would make mistakes. It was a middle school – making mistakes was their job. Rather than attempting to control and corral their behavior, I learned to view mistakes as teaching/learning opportunities. Our task was to work together toward those high standards, knowing we’d never achieve them.

I didn’t expect perfection. We certainly weren’t a Hallmark classroom with quiet students sitting obediently in straight rows, but kids interacted and learned… which I believed was the goal.

So why, I wonder, would I see the FREEDOM TOUR community differently? Why would I expect this group of flawed, broken people to be perfect?

Jon offered the answer in his post. Paraphrasing – we think having Jesus around will make every group perfect.

If it’s about Jesus, volunteers will have endless energy. Cyclists will never get tired or cranky. Everyone will come together in a spirit of selfless sacrifice.

Just saying it sounds silly. No diverse group of people, anywhere, ever, has operated that way. So as I cranked along, I wondered – what might make a group of people gathered around Jesus different?

The answer might be found in looking at my classroom.

We have the highest standard, but what if we expected mistakes? What if we thought through, in advance, how we would deal with conflict and crankiness?

We have the tools. Forgiveness. Grace. Reconciliation. What if those became part of the plan? What if, rather than drawing lines, mistakes became opportunities to work together toward the high standards we can never achieve?

And – what if this isn’t about a bike ride?