Dan’s Blog

Veil \Veil\ (v[=a]l), n. [OE. veile, OF. veile, F. voile, L.
   velum a sail, covering, curtain, veil, probably fr. vehere to
   bear, carry, and thus originally, that which bears the ship
   on. See Vehicle, and cf. Reveal.]
[Written also vail - but very tough to Google!  ]

A cover; disguise; a mask; a pretense.

After a summer break from my teaching ministry, I returned to find an unlabeled extension cord plugged into an outlet in my office. After several attempts to find the meaning of this cord, I finally unplugged it! My reasoning: if it is important, someone will contact me, otherwise who cares. Sure enough, I was told it had something to do with the building’s new HVAC monitoring system!

The other day someone came by to “finish the job” and remove the extension cord. I ended up having a lengthy conversion with him about teaching. He teaches part time @ Greenville Tech and he shared with me some of the opportunities the Lord was giving him to have a personal ministry with some of his students. He has students with drug problems, relationship problems, etc. The thought crossed my mind, wow, how refreshing it would be to teach students whose lives were transparent to their personal problems! Very seldom do I see the “real problems” which are on the hearts of my students. I teach in a world in which the majority of my students have “learned how to act” and are very much veiled about what’s really going on in their heart. I think our system of education (i.e. Christian schools) somewhat breeds this action. If you have problems, I’m afraid the fear is that you will “get in trouble”. As a result I think many of my students (and fellow teachers) live in such a way as to put a social veil over themselves, making it very difficult for others to know what’s really going on inside.

Teaching, for me, is much more than simply imparting knowledge about my subject area. I want to touch my students’ hearts and encourage them into a closer relationship with their Creator and Savior! To do this effectively, I have to depend upon God’s Holy Spirit to help me uncover this social veil so I can touch their heart with Truth and Wisdom. Only then can I claim to be a worthwhile teacher!