Elevate with EDP

If you are growing weary of doing good and bearing light and love, do not let your fatigue become your permission slip to disappear.

Stand your ground.Keep speaking truth to power when silence feels safer.Keep sowing grace and truth in the dark.

Evil is relentless.So we must be relentless in love, relentless in courage, relentless in presence.

The righteous cannot quit.

Reflection (comment if you are willing):

* Where have you been tempted to disengage—and what is the cost of your absence?

* Which of the three do you need most right now: recenter, refocus, or recommit?

* What is one concrete action you will take this week?

Today’s message is titled: Fruit by Wednesday: Three Days on Purpose.

And I am calling it three days on purpose because Scripture teaches us that God does decisive work in short windows. Three days is a resurrection rhythm. It is the space where God proves that what looks stalled is not final—where what looks dead and buried can rise.

God did not grace us with another year so we could rename old habits “new beginnings.” What is God expecting from what He planted—and what will you do with this grace of another?

We are not standing on the edge—we have entered another.

And what God has given us is not merely a new year, but another chance.

Another is mercy with a mandate—not permission to repeat cycles. It is the grace of time, opportunity and power to make necessary adjustments to be fruitful.

Just pondering the concept of “Windows and Mirrors” and the mandate for culturally responsive education, and here is what flowed out.

We are the content.

But let me be clear: our story must not be relegated to slave narratives. Before we were slaves, we were sovereign. And in spite of our chains, we dreamed. We built. We taught. We healed. We led. And we endured.As a social studies educator with more than a decade in public charter schools in the Bronx and Harlem, I say this to my students regularly—some days directly, other days through the design of our lessons:“You’re not just here to learn history. You’re here to make history as well.”Because far too often, especially for black and brown students, history is delivered through the narrow lens of suffering. A curriculum of trauma. Our narratives get boxed into chains, plantations, and pity—our worth measured only by our resistance to oppression. But this is a cropped frame.Before the boats, before the branding, before the auctions—We were doing math, designing monuments, studying the stars. We were ruling kingdoms and pondering life, spirit, justice, and God.We were. And we still are. We are game changers. History makers.Core content. Not a sidebar. Not a single month. Active. Intentional. Essential.Fellow Educators: This is our mandate. If you want students to thrive, let them. Let them see that their history doesn’t have to begin at struggle. Let them see the brilliance before, during, and beyond the atrocities of oppression. Teach with truth. Teach with mirrors and windows. Teach like legacy matters—because it does.

Porter Prep: K-12 Teaching Resources

Anchor Text: Matthew 5:14–16Do not get lost in the trend. Position yourself to be the change who brings change in Jesus’ name

* BIG IDEAShining is not performance. Shining is witness. A life that produces consistent “good works” requires depth and structure, not moments.

* KEY DEFINITIONS- Flex: Attention-seeking visibility; image management; applause-driven.…

This week’s Elevate is for the high-capacity person who is tired of proving.

Matthew 5:16 shows us the goal is not attention—it is good works that glorify the Father.

If you are ready to move with intention, this is your reset.

This reflection grew out of a quiet realization: this Christmas feels different for me—and I no longer believe that difference is a deficiency.

Rather than forcing myself into the expected mood of the season, I chose to sit with the question of what God might be revealing beneath the surface. What if Christmas is not always about enchantment, but about something sturdier and more sustaining?

In this message, I explore the tension between cultural expectations of joy and the deeper work God often does in quieter seasons. Drawing from the story of Israel in the wilderness, I reflect on how freedom can feel unsettling when it requires trust, and how familiarity can sometimes feel safer than promise.

This is not a message about losing faith or joy.

It is a reflection on grace revealed through clarity, light, and presence—especially when emotions feel restrained.

If this season feels sober for you, you are not alone. And you are not failing Christmas. You may simply be standing in a moment of formation