It's time. It's time to stop ignoring the call that has so clearly been placed on my life, and take action.
I've been called to be a teacher.
For those of you that know me, I hope that would not be a surprise to you. However, when I felt the Lord calling me to this, I was very much surprised.
First things first, being a teacher requires standing up in front of people and talking. Ha! No, thank you.
Secondly, being a teacher requires spending a majority of your day interacting with children, who make your life their life -- not to mention the extreme lack of peace and quiet. Boy, that sounds like an introvert's wildest dream! (Please take note of the sarcasm there).
Make no mistake, I love teachers. I'm amazed by the people who have the courage to devote their lives to enriching the lives of children. My life has been shaped by teachers. I'm just not one of them!
I feel like Simon Cowell: "It's a no from me."
So you can imagine my joy (again, sarcasm) when I clearly heard the call of the Lord. Only here's the thing: I'm about 99.7 percent sure I'm not called to be a schoolteacher. (I mean, I have to leave some margin for error, right?)
I have been given this incredible gift of understanding Scripture. I read it, and it just makes sense to me. If I read enough, I'm able to connect passages to each other to offer clarity. For some reason, I'm able to come up with ways to communicate these insights to others.
It is by the grace of God that this is true in my life. I have done nothing to deserve it, nor is it more or less special of a gift than anything else the Lord has laid upon others.
This is my ministry. This is the way the Lord has called me to serve Him.
This is the time to stop worrying about what people are going to think when I share the Gospel. This is the time to be less concerned with how I'm coming across, and more concerned with the souls and well-being of those I love.
The Gospel doesn't need to be defended. It's powerful enough on its own.
But just as Paul the Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:16, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (NIV).
My father has always told me that one of the worst things you can do is waste the gifts the Lord has given you. He's not alone in this -- Scripture backs him up. In the book of John, Jesus spends His last night with His disciples, and He prays for Himself, His disciples, and then all believers. In the context of praying to the Father for Himself, He prays this:
"I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do" (John 17:4).
Man, if Jesus feels the need to pray about this, how much more do we need to pray about it? If He's so conscious of how He's glorifying the father, how much more do we need to be conscious of it? Let not your gifts go to waste!
Well, I've been given this gift of being able to teach the Scriptures. And while I don't know what that looks like on a grand scale, I do know that I have this opportunity before me, and woe to me if I don't grasp it!
From now on, you can expect me to write about our world, our communities, and how we interact with them on a daily basis. And you can bet that I'll be doing that through the lens of Scripture.
Hold tight -- Jesus is far more relevant in our lives than we give Him credit for.
