Each of us needs schools to teach, hospitals to heal, police to protect and serve, government to order civic life, and places of worship to lift our hearts to a higher purpose.

State budget negotiations are full of false dichotomies. We are forced to choose loyalties between public, charter, or private schools. But is that really our only choice? While policymakers debate whether to spend more or less on education, perhaps we might ask, “How can we spend differently?”

2022 is going out with a bang in the Anderson household, or rather, with a thud and a crack! My sweet, 16-year-old daughter, Amelia, took a hard spill at the rollerskating rink that fractured her left wrist.

I had intended on writing a reflection piece about 2022. I never realized that a 10-hour stint in the ER would provide inspiration.

Could it be that both Republicans and Democrats finally agree that a child’s ZIP code, ethnicity, or class should not determine whether they have access to a high-quality education?

As a parent of six children though, I am moderately annoyed by the suggestion that parents should just butt out when it comes to their kid’s education.

While parents may not control what is taught in school, they at least deserve to have clarity about a school’s goals, beliefs, and methods.

The world as we have known it for the last 18 months has been a challenge in which to find a rhythm. Our old ways of doing things have been flipped upside down.

Work, school, and church life were moved to different rhythms.

America’s culture wars are intensifying in the nation’s classrooms and board meetings. How long can this public institution withstand the tug-of-war between ideologically opposed groups?

As a Dad invested in the future well-being of my six kids, I confess that I am struggling to keep up with the blistering pace of technological advancement.

There are likely good reasons why a departure may be justified. Before you say “I Quit,” perhaps you should ponder if you may need a season to renew your strength.

We should all be deeply concerned about the fracturing of our nation. The snag in the fabric has torn all the way into local communities and houses of worship. The tear does not show any signs of slowing. 

This year was my fifth opportunity to teach personal finance to a group of seniors at Logos Academy where I serve as CEO. All of our students are required to take this class where they learn about money, budgeting, the stock market, and a bit of basic economics.

I am convinced that their most important takeaway is not how to stay out of debt or become wealthy, but rather how to find joy in a life where hardship and difficulty will be unavoidable.

An obnoxious donkey is blocking your way on the path to success. That beast of burden brays and bucks and you just can’t get the stubborn beast to move.

The only thing that stands between you and your goal is that obstinate donkey.

Before you go kicking and beating the donkey to move it out of your way, you better take the time to discern why the donkey is blocking your way.

After much mental and spiritual despair, I am now confident, even optimistic, that there is a way forward. I have the privilege of witnessing the beginnings of it happening right here in York, PA. It is a tenuous start, but it is a beginning nonetheless.

We can build a beautiful city and I believe God wants us to do it together. This construction requires the recognition of four emerging problems in public life: outsourcing, ambivalence, intolerance, and tribalism.

We build gates in communities that are restricted with key-code access, and erect fences in our neighborhoods to mark off our territory, give us privacy from our neighbors, and safety from unwanted intruders.

The logic of good fences seems indisputable. Fences keep little kids and pets within our boundaries, but more importantly, they keep the unwanted and unwelcome out.

Leaders face constant pressure to respond to the 24 hour news and social media cycle. This can be exhausting to manage.

The cycle offers endless material for media consumers to digest: school shootings, leadership scandals, outlandish statements and behavior by political leaders and celebrities, botched police incidents, blatant examples of racism, and the list goes on. In addition, people within my own network are reporting personal news (marriages, divorces, births, deaths, new jobs, job losses, etc).

At the root of these retorts is one massive problem: the refusal to listen. A deaf ear is a particularly poisonous evil. It robs our neighbor of the dignity as an image bearer of God to be a bearer of truth. A deaf ear voids our neighbor’s experience. Refusal to consider your neighbor’s perspective means you believe they are a liar.

It is a high probability that anyone reading this has little interest in hearing more about COVID-19. The quarantines, job and business losses, mental health struggles, and waves of deaths have cast a long shadow over all of us. One might call this a tempting season to “lose heart.”

How can we resist the tendency to lose heart in this difficult time?