"I have opportunities every day to embrace working with God rather than working my own plan. I don't need to go far to look for adventure. The best kind is right where He is. My job is to notice what He's doing so I can do my part to make it happen. What could be more exciting than that."
-Alexandra Kuykendall
Do you ever have moments where you feel you are part of something much greater than anything human hands could orchestrate? Of course there are the big miracle moments - babies born, sicknesses healed, and lives restored. God can do that and He does it every day. But I've found that when I'm expectant in the everyday, it's easy to see God work in ways that leave me looking to the clouds with a smile on my face and awe in my praise. I don't write about my job often, but God has breathed new life into my purpose over the last few years and it's transformed how I approach this calling of mine. The following is a story that illustrates this.
I started my career as a high school English teacher at a laboratory school here in Cedar Falls. It was an amazing place to teach. Our student body was small but very diverse, and it was here I learned to truly see other backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs as beautiful. I learned how to teach in ways that pushed beyond the surface of students' lives, to ask good questions, and to build powerful relationships through dialogue, connections, and story. It's where I also built a network of colleagues who encouraged me, challenged me, and empowered me. And when the sweet school was forced to shut its doors after my fifth year there, I faced a crossroads of whether to stay in the classroom as an English teacher or take a risk and try a brand new position on campus as a mentor to future teachers as they make their way through the program. I took the risk and am halfway through my seventh year as a field experience coordinator at UNI. And I love the work I get to do.
My current job is a unique and important one. I spend my days walking alongside many students as they complete very important field experiences in real classrooms where they have to prove they have what it takes to be a teacher. I help students find the tools and confidence to soar, and often have hard conversations when they aren't quite ready to move on to the next big step. Some days, I get to play a small part in helping a student find what they're truly made to do. Some days, I get to start a conversation that's going to redirect the entire course of a kids' life, down a path they didn't even know existed. And some days, I have to be the bad guy, the one they blame for crushing their dream and complicating their near future. They're often the ones who come back and thank us later. ;)
Some days, though, I get to do some Holy Spirit work. And that's where Chris comes in. I've changed his name for the purpose of this story, but Chris was a kid who came to my class quiet, withdrawn, and not really embodying any of the characteristics we look for in a teacher. He came to my course with a previous Notification of Concern from his first field experience, for reasons of difficulty connecting in a classroom and communicating with others. I'd be lying if I said a part of me didn't write him off at the beginning, but I placed him in a high school classroom with a supportive mentor teacher who was kind, reasonable, and firm.
Over the course of his six week field experience, Chris found his place in this classroom. He was a bit odd you could say, but his heart was in the right place and he loved being there, especially when he got to work with students who also struggled in school. He just so happened to be placed in two classes of lower-achieving students who carried some burdens of their own to those seats every day. Broken homes, negative labels, former offenses they couldn't overcome, etc., these kids didn't write Chris off like many of their peers would have, but developed a bond with him that was genuine and sweet. And little by little, I could see begin to see Chris with a classroom of his own someday.
If you remember this past fall, it rained. It rained a lot. I learned after placing Chris that he was thankful to be at a school close to campus because he didn't a car and had to walk every day. One day, I visited his classroom only to find Chris wasn't there. Annoyed and frustrated at first for having to trudge through the rain myself, I talked with his teacher who informed me he sent him home. It had been raining and Chris showed up soaked. He didn't have an umbrella, didn't have a ride, and didn't have much pride at this point, so when the rain stopped momentarily, his teacher sent him home early to beat the next storm. It was during this time I also learned that Chris had opened up about his home life and that he was not only going to school full-time, but working full-time in order to support not only himself, but his parents. And that he simply hadn't had the time or the extra cash to buy himself an umbrella.
Fast forward a few weeks later. My students have gathered for their last on-campus seminar and are nervously sharing video segments of their teaching and talking about some big highlights they learned throughout their semester. They do this, and then I instruct them to write and share a single, six-word memoir that describes their life and learning this semester. I gave the students an out and said we didn't have to do memoirs this time, but Beth, another student in the class, spoke up and said it sounded fun. Here is where Beth comes in, whose name has also been changed in this story. Beth was easily the most natural of teachers I had this particular semester. She was bubbly, mature, and wonderfully skilled in the classroom, and is going to be an amazing teacher. She shared her video and her peers were mystified at the activities she engaged her students in. But it was Chris who followed her and left us with lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes. He nervously shared his video, but as he talked about his students and the six weeks he spent in the classroom, he couldn't help but get emotional. He said he came into his experience expecting to fail for a number of reasons, but that instead he found parts of himself he didn't realize he had. I don't even remember what his memoir was, but that night, we all parted ways and I drove home in the rain, thankful for God's eyes to see the Chris He made him to be.
God's work didn't stop there, though. A week or so later, I grabbed my campus mail and had a hand-written letter from Beth, the sweet student who soared through her field experience. The letter was a gesture of appreciation for the support I had provided her, but at the end, she wrote about something I had to read a few times through. This is what she wrote:
"You were there for me in the very moments when I needed a push or a reassuring word of advice. But it's not only me. You have a way of seeing us as uniquely gifted, of recognizing qualities in everyone's efforts and experiences, and sharing these things in a way that inspires everyone to better themselves. One of the 6-word memoirs I rattled off the last day of class read: 'I need a bigger umbrella today.' This was written to symbolize my experience teaching in the classroom, but I had idea when I was writing it how true it would become. As we left class, Chris and I walked together, huddled under my tiny umbrella, and I felt this overwhelming sense of peace because I felt like was part of something much bigger than myself. For that I owe you a world of thanks."
Beth had no idea of Chris' former umbrella story and just how much that walk under hers meant to him that night. But she felt power in her place, part of something much bigger than herself. She recognized it and it changed her for good. God is working behind the scenes of all our lives in order to reveal Himself through His spirit. And that spirit is powerful, and full of love and great purpose. And when you let Him in to partner in the places he's not so accidentally put us, He's ready to change lives through simple acts of faith. When you believe this, we start to walk on holy ground. Nothing feels accidental. In this case, He used six simple words, one tiny umbrella, and a whole lot of rain to show us what He's after. It's an amazing privilege to be part of this great big world and to be used by God for His glory. We all play a part, in our own unique ways, and there's no greater life than saying yes to what He might be up to.
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