w w w . r c s n m . o r g 5 0 5 . 8 6 3 . 4 4 1 2 p o b o x 4 1 r e h o b o t h n m 8 7 3 2 2
his is the stone that
I got at our retreat at
Broken Arrow this
past January. At that time
I shared that it had a little
wave on it, which is like a
cosine wave, something I was
going to be teaching about
in the semester to come.
At the time I also found it
somewhat "prophetic" to
the ups and downs that I
was anticipating to come
in Semester 2. The ups and
downs I was anticipating
were more related to my own
children and family, to the
exciting plans we had made,
to the opportunities that
each child would participate
in as well as the preparations,
emotions, and excitement
of graduating our first child.
Those were the ups and
downs I was anticipating.
And the stone itself reminded
me that through the ups and
downs God is steadfast like a
solid rock.
What transpired this
semester was indeed filled
with ups and downs. Many
of them. And in reality the
ups and downs I anticipated
were nothing compared to
what we experienced as a
school and as a community.
As a school we've hit some
really low downs, and we've
had some ups, but God has continued to remain a solid stone.
For me, the most impactful up and down was the days surrounding Alex
De Armond’s death. Less than 24 hours before her passing, she wrote a TPQ
(Thought Provoking Question) that brought me to tears.
The TPQ from
Mr. Van Slooten
“Jesus came to earth to be an
inverse.” Now respond, refute, defend, agree, disagree,
discuss this statement.
The TPQ response from Alex De Armond
written the day before she died
“I do believe Jesus did come to earth to be an inverse, he is
our inverse. An inverse is a function that is the opposite of
another function and is used to “undo” that function. When
Jesus came to earth he was completely perfect. He never
sinned even though he was born into this world of sin just
like we were, this is the complete opposite of us. No matter
how hard we try we will always be sinners and we will never
be perfect. But when Jesus came to earth he was tortured
and killed by being hung on a cross, he went through all of
that pain, torment, ridicule, and emotional torture for us.
He sacrificed himself so that all of our sins could be forgiv-
en and “undone.” Jesus is an inverse and we are his oppo-
sites. Inverses are also reflections of another function and
Jesus told us we are made in his own image; we are made
like him. But we have hearts full of sin, not because Jesus
has sin in his heart, but because Satan got a hold of us, and
we fell. But even after all of that, Jesus, our inverse, undid
all of those sins for us and was the ultimate sacrifice.
Over the years, I've had very few students write a TPQ that
moved me the way Alex's did. That was an up. Then we
received Saturday morning's news of her passing. The shock-
ing sadness that that brought was an extreme down. The
days that followed brought ups and downs as we mourned,
celebrated, mourned some more, and celebrated her life some
more. Yet, Alex, too, believed in the unwavering love of God.
This stone has a wave on it. And life has been like that wave
this semester. Yet, the stone is solid. It can't be broken. The
stone is the foundation for that wave. I could throw the stone
away if I wanted, lose it if I'm not careful, or even forget about it, but it's still
going to be the same stone with a wave on it no matter what happens to it,
and that reminds me of God's love for me.
Alex De Armond with Lainey, the baby of one of her mom's coworkers
Alex's Answer
by Chris Van Slooten, High School Math Teacher
Rehoboth Teacher Ponders a Tough Year