The Fifth Grade Classroom

When God tells you to go, you go, even if you're living in the golden years of comfort.

I loved teaching fifth grade. When I began in 2003, I put in some crazy hours that first year, but by the time the third one rolled around, I had a rhythm. But all that changed when I left for Liberia the summer of 2006.

When God tells you to stay, you stay, even if golden horizons blossom before you.

I returned from Liberia in as winter was loosing its grip in 2008. Anxious to return to the mission field I pleaded with God to hurry up the process. Here I sit, over two years later, still preparing to go. And I'm still a half a year from my departure.

Had I rushed ahead of God, I would have missed a blessing. Right now I am privileged to be a full-time fifth grade teacher once again. It is as if God is reminding me, "I remember how you loved your job. You gave it up for Me, so I am giving it back to you for a season."

I wish you could meet my fifth graders. I get to see Christ working in 20 young lives every day. I am able to lay any feeling of anxiety into the hands of Jesus, because I see how my Faithful God cares for me. I don't deserve any of this, I only have more reasons to praise the name of Jesus.

Hurry Up and Wait!

How many times do you rush to leave the house, race on the edge of the speed limit plus five, fly into wherever it is you are headed to find yourself at the back of a slow moving line?

In the United States I am submerged in the Western Cultural Mindset of "Hurry Up and Wait." My calendar is filled, chaining me to a rigid pace with very little margin. I finish the day trading my list of unfinished tasks for the latest young adult fiction novel only to drift off before finishing one page.

Yet there is a lesson God is still teaching me in this time: patience.

Waiting on His timing.

Resting in His hands.

With Singapore as my decided (yet not officially announced to the world) destination, I have massive amounts of tasks to complete. I race to be fully funded, trained, and prepared, so that I can begin my language study and integration into Southeast Asian ministry. However, I have to remind myself that these things take time. If I just hurry through this season of life, I may find a slow moving line once I reach my destination.

Can someone say, "Hurry up and wait?"