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For a short time at
the school district, I had the opportunity to observe teachers and aides up-close and in-action. What really impressed me was how dedicated they were to their students,
and how they had total command of the classroom. Some teachers have been at
the same schools for many years and have a close, harmonious, relationship with
many of the students. I believe teaching is a gift from God, and pretty much
everyone I observed found their gift. There were only a few where I thought,
“You missed your calling!”
One such aide named Ella, a
retired teacher working in a class of elementary school students
with special needs, really knew how to get them moving on their tasks. One student
in particular named Nick easily got distracted from his work because he loved
to talk and socialize with other students, so to get him to focus, Ella would threaten
to take away minutes from his recess. She knew it was his favorite thing to do, and that he loved it. It worked, for a little bit, but
then, he soon became distracted again, so after a few warnings, Ella started taking
away minutes from his recess.
It seemed like every time I walked
out onto the playground, there was Nick standing by the fence anxiously waiting
for Ella to wave him in to play once his minutes were up. I told her that they
should put a plaque at that spot with his name on it since he was there so
much.
That got me thinking about how
God works with us. Like a good teacher, God knows where to hit us where it
hurts in order to move us forward on our tasks. For
example, being an introvert, I love quiet, order, and structure, but when I’m doing
something God wants me to stop, or to do, or to let go of, and don’t do it soon enough, I notice He brings people along my way that are polar opposites to buffet me; people that are difficult, noisy, and
chaotic because that gets me moving in doing His
will. Once, I realized the disruptive person placed in my life came from God to
get me back in step, I'd repent and, with His help and guidance, turn from what I was doing, or not doing, and then, He'd quickly remove the chaotic person from my path.
We can see that spiritual pattern of sin, discipline by God, recommitment to be faithful and repeated falls throughout the books of the Old Testament. For example, God called Jonah to go to the people of Nineveh to deliver a message from Him, a task he resisted and fled from, so God sent a mighty storm his way to get him back on track.
Another example, in the Book of Judges, after Joshua died, the people often backslid from God, so to get them on track again; He'd raise-up an enemy from within their camp to buffet them. Then, they'd cry out to the LORD in their trouble, and He'd direct a savior type in the form of a judge to deliver them out of their distresses, and the cycle repeated.
Their fickleness has its equivalent in our frequent falls in God’s service, at which, God can speak to us directly or indirectly through some kind of divine storm or disturbance to get us back in step. As I heard it said that a good description
of a disciple of Christ today might be trying, failing, and trying again.