The Miracle Unfolding in Mississippi Schools

Key Takeaways

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  Grief should not be rushed or ignored

  “And what I think we're all learning is that grief is hard, but there's grace in it as well. It's not something that can be rushed. I'm going to hit mute on my mic and Gabe, Sarah, take us in. What we're going to focus on today is a Wesleyan Biblical Theology of grief and my, I think there's a good possibility that this spills over into a second episode because we have a lot to talk about here.”

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  Church culture often wrongly stigmatizes sadness

  “I was reared in a church culture where everything had to be about joy. If you were feeling down, if you were experiencing grief or trauma, then you didn't have enough faith because the joy of the Lord is your strength. And while that's true, that doesn't mean that everything has to be hunky-dory. When bad things happened, you just moved on in that culture.”

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  Joy and grief can coexist simultaneously

  “I had really come to believe that I would never know what it was like to feel a baby move in my womb. Every doctor's appointment I had ever had, anticipating a pregnancy that was all 12 years ago, it was always devastating news and difficult ultrasounds and saying goodbye too early. And so this gift of Bristol's life for us was really a season of joy that we hadn't ever experienced before.”

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  Meaningful healing requires sitting in the ashes

  “Talk about how we all, and by we I mean the whole church, the whole culture are living really in a place of ashes and lament and what to do with that. I had a pretty profound experience with lament at the New Room Conference last week. I made a blog post that's kind of blown up in incredible ways. I think we all agree that as Christians, we're pretty bad at letting ourselves feel the things of grief.”

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  Pastoral transparency helps others navigate loss

  “It's hard. It's a bit surreal to realize that we, just a few months ago, had shared with you on Midnight Theology the incredible story of the miracle that was unfolding in our lives. So, if you're listening and you haven't quite heard the backstory, you will need that information just to understand what's unfolding in our lives in its fullness. And that's episode four of Midnight Theology, when we talk about God working miracles.”

Episode Description

Mississippi has seen a stunning turnaround in national test scores in the past decade, even as they have fallen almost everywhere else. Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter, explains what the state can teach the rest of the country about how to educate students. Guest: Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter at The New York Times, focusing on K-12 schools. Background reading:  How Mississippi transformed its schools from worst to best. Photo: Rory Doyle for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.