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Order & Continuity

These days I am a substitute teacher. Given that I am wanting to work as much as possible I have made myself available for every elementary, middle and high school in our area.

Some people, forgetting that I have loved being a youth pastor for half my life, cringe at the idea of subbing for middle and high school.  But I know teens to be awesome people.

I digress. Let me tell you what I enjoy about being a substitute teacher. Variety. In one week I taught middle school p.e., a first grade class and a fourth grade class. If a sub doesn’t like first graders, just hold on for a day. It’ll change tomorrow.

Variety means meeting lots of people and getting to touch the lives of many children. Maybe they struggle with their regular teacher and you can be a breath of grace filled air.

On the other hand, I have no idea what to expect each day as I get up. Will the class be full of basically good kids or a room filled with untamed mutants? Will I find myself dealing with little children who may cry because I did things differently than their regular teacher? Or will I find myself crying because of what I found the students were capable of doing.

Variety is not something we always enjoy. It used to be that I had a weekly schedule I could depend on. I knew, as much as life would allow it, what was on the docket for each day. Yes, even in the world of ministry.

I find myself wandering out of school for another day, asking questions like;

  • Where do I need to go?
  • What day is it?
  • Do I have a child of my own that needs a ride somewhere?
  • Where am I?
  • Who am I today?
It's almost like a Hitchcock movie where I awake from a coma and try to figure out what just happened. How did I find myself here?


Nevertheless, I find myself in these various situations, wondering how I have found myself at this point. As a guy who generally enjoys order, having a specific place on my desk for each item, this element of unknown is very different...and stretching.

If people generally enjoy having some control over their own lives, then I am much like the students in the schools I am working at each day. Someone tells me where to go (not a new experience for me). Someone informs me what I should be doing. And there are plenty of people looking over my shoulder.

Perhaps this is where God wants me right now.  When things are ordered, I don’t look to Him as much as I should. When things are as I believe they should be, I don’t have a need to trust.

So will today find me reading form picture books in classrooms splattered with lots of color and motivational posters? Or will I find myself in a classroom that looks forgotten, filled with students jaded far before their time? Perhaps I will hit the jackpot of substitute assignments and be able to dress as a gym teacher.

No matter, I will remember to look to God who orders my days and sets my path. Easily said. But only faithfully done. 

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