Into the Unknown with a Known God

“He went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Hebrews 11:8

I, Chelsea, am stepping into the unknown.  I am moving ahead into full-time student teaching for this entire next semester.  I don’t know what to expect.  I don’t know how it’s going to go.  My aim is to bring God into a place where he has been banned.  Which is silly, of course, because if God was able to be pushed around by humans, well he wouldn't be a god.  Still, bringing his love and message of hope is not allowed for school teachers and the like.  Yet His message is written in my heart.  His love lives within me.  

But what can I really do as a teacher in public school?  Well, the Holy Spirit dwells in me.  My hope is to unleash the Spirit to work in that school--in students and teachers' lives. I know that my students are hearing words of death.  Some from their parents.  Some from the media.  Some from other teachers within the school.  I vow to speak words of life to them.  I can treat my students with kindness, compassion, and respect.  I can work my hardest to make sure that each of them has an opportunity to succeed.  In between talking about voice, character, and adverbs I can find moments to interject lessons about life, love, and making good choices.  

I am stepping into an unknown terrain with a known God.  I do not know what he is going to do.  But I know who he is.  I know he loves the unlovable.  I know he reaches the unreachable.  I know he sees the deepest needs of suffering human hearts, is moved to compassion, and meets these needs.  My prayer is that, somehow, someway, God would do these things through me at my middle school in the coming semester:

Isaiah 61:1-3

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

    because the LORD has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor;

    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,

    and the day of vengeance of our God;

    to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—

    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;

that they may be called oaks of righteousness,

    the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified."

I move into student teaching filled with hope, because I know the God who is going there with me.