A few hours ago I watched via the Internet the memorial service of one of my amazing mentors, Mr. Jim Kilkenny. He taught me Biblical Foundational Principles and how they applied to Education; specifically to every subject. How deeply enriched my life has been because of seeing these truths. Having been trained in public school and a secular university, God had to really expand and renew my thinking. I recall seeing a cohesiveness and unity when examining God’s view of Math, Science, History, etc. It made learning take on a whole new meaning for me.
But being mentored by Mr. Kilkenny was a personal experience for me, as well. He cared about me as his student teacher but treated me as a friend and a peer. I looked at him as a Father-figure and there were numerous conversations that we shared over the course of the few years that I worked with him. How much he encouraged me and believed in me!
After twenty-five years of marriage, it was going to be my great delight to share with him the achievement of a lifetime dream—my first published book, Broken Hearts Healed. He had a massive stroke just a few days ago and Jesus took Mr. Kilkenny home.
Mentors are people who invest in our lives and who have such an amazing influence in shaping our destinies. Sometimes, though, I don’t think they have any idea just how profoundly God has used them because they simply live faithfully and make the time to pour into our hearts and minds the words and actions that God directs them to.
These are two pieces of writing that were inspired during my training under Mr. Jim Kilkenny.
My God!
How vainly we flit from philosophy to philosophy
seeking desperately for that which we
cannot seem to grasp or find—
We are like a butterfly
that has been touched
and keeps flapping its wings
going nowhere
’til it dies.
My God!
thousands of Americans, Europeans,
Bajans, Africans,
—peoples of
the world
have no concrete idea why they are
even here
and books that tell the stories
sit on the shelves—
unresearched, unopened,
unquestioned & unanswered.
Truly life—in all its meaning
has become meaningless
in this day and age
of Humanism—
where You no longer exist.
My GOD!
This butterfly will never fly again
because the touch of man
unknowingly, in his inquiry to grasp its beauty
in ignorance of its design
Has damned its destiny.
O Lord when I consider the magnitude of the task, the challenge of delving into unchartered waters, every natural inclination within me rises up and screams (vying for attention) “Turn back! turn back! turn back!” But some small spark of indignant fire courses through my being urging me on to seek that “new world” of education and to discover once again that Lost Colony of Learning that will fill my soul with the vast wisdom and knowledge of God causing me to bow so humbly in my heart of hearts with tears so nobly streaming down my cheeks, and posture so reverently kneeling to acknowledge with joy, wonder, admiration and awe Thy great and powerful Hand in History and Thy mighty acts towards the children of men.