As the end of term approaches, there has been much to think about over the past week. I use the phrase 'end of term' loosely for I will still be teaching around the Easter holidays. The only difference is that my lessons will be in the morning. In many ways, this will be a welcome change from my usual teaching schedule of afternoon into evening.
Over these past days, my mind has been very much pondering the future and the big question of - what's next? I will be speaking with my school owner about my future, and will be sharing with her my decision to return to England. There has been some hesitation over this decision, mostly due to the fact that over these last seven months I have made many friendships. I also know that it will be sad for my classes. One class last week even asked me if I would get the school owner to refresh my contract!
I still have around four months in Greece, and there are many things I God-willing plan to do. I will look forward to sharing more of these plans in the coming weeks - one involves a mission trip in early July. Please pray for me as I seek to communicate my decision with friends and colleagues. Above all, pray that I would trust in God! He really does have a perfect plan. I'm beginning to see how it is one thing to know this truth, another thing to live it out!
In his book, 'Broken-Down House', Paul Tripp writes:
We simply need to accept that the reasons God does what he does in our lives, or how our life fits into the whole of his grand redemptive plan, will never be completely clear in this life. This is why real rest and peace is not found in knowing and understanding. It is only found in trust. Only when you have a quiet confidence in the Lord behind the plan and have come to know his love, wisdom, power, and grace, will you be able to rest in hope - even when you do not understand what God is doing in a particular moment in your life.
Looking back over the last few years, I can truly testify to the faithfulness of God. At times life can feel like you are driving in thick fog, you know your moving forward, you've just got no idea what's up ahead. I'm starting to see that this is not only a common experience, but is actually the way God has chosen for us to live - by faith. Sure he could show up and tell us everything now about the future, sure he could provide a detailed itinerary of the next 5 years, but if we really stop to think about it, would any of this actually produce in us wisdom and spiritual growth?
I often think of the experience of Joseph in the latter chapters of Genesis, a man who endured intense suffering, and at times must have wandered what God was doing. Yet in the end, he was able to look back and say with confidence, that all the events of the past were not only permitted by God, but were intended for his good. No doubt young arrogant Joseph had done much growing up during those painful years, and in many ways is the wiser for them. He learnt that real rest and true peace is only found in the sovereign and wise Creator.
And so, as I journey on, fog-lights at full beam, I leave you with some reflections on the question of identity. So often when we are seeking clarification on the future, we can be tempted to look to earthly things to define us, to say this is who I am. Yet...
If I continually search for my identity in the creation I will forever be dissatisfied, for the creation was never purposed for such a task. My search must go deeper, beyond the creation to the Creator Himself. My journey of self-discovery was never meant to end in the things around me, but it is in the very things around me where I see the fingerprints of the One who is above me. Only as I come to Him will I finally find the true answer to the question of my identity.
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