there is enough time
In my room, alone and quiet a few days ago, I was thinking about how much I have to do, how much I want to do, and how fast each day goes. In my head, I was standing there with Jesus, and I basically just said to Him, "There's not enough time!" And He answered without a pause, "There is enough time." The simplest little exchange, but it really made me stop and think, and realize that He's right, of course. I'm always thinking about everything that I could be doing that I'm not, all the people I'm not reaching, all the places I'm not at. But I was just reminded yet again that my Father is the one who knows what He wants to do through me, and He has allotted enough time in my life to do it. After a pause, I asked Him, "Can you help me?" And of course He answered, "I already am." And with a smile, He reminded me to be still in heart and just take the next step with Him. I wrote it down in my journal and titled the entry, “There is enough time.” Little did I know what He was preparing me for.
On Thursday morning, I got up thinking that I would have a peaceful day of preparing for my Sunday afternoon classes, with just one class that afternoon. I was planning on taking a shower during the first period, and having some good Bible reading time after that, and then getting ahead on my work enough to be able to take Saturday completely off for my Sabbath. But during breakfast, one of the administrators at the school came and told me that our head English teacher wouldn’t be there today or tomorrow, and could I teach three of her classes each of those days? And the first one is in an hour.
Thus began a non-stop, don’t-waste-a-second two days. Teaching lessons on material I’ve never used, as well as preparing my own class, and teaching piano, leading morning readings, and preparing a teacher training program… I had to constantly remind myself to just take the next step, just take the next step, just do what I can do right now. Flipping open my journal on Friday morning to cry out to God for help, I saw the title of the previous entry: “There is enough time.” It stopped me in the midst of my thoughts, reminding me again to trust that He knows what He’s doing.
I knew I needed to stop and rest on Saturday, to take a Sabbath as God’s gift to me. So many times throughout that day, I thought, “Am I crazy? I have so much left that I need to prepare for; four hours of class tomorrow, a whole weeks worth of classes after that, finishing the teacher training, scholarship applications, and more.” But I put away all my materials, closed all the in-process PowerPoint presentations, and stuck all the textbooks back on the shelf. I made myself rest like I know God designed me to, telling myself that if God asks me to take a day away from the work of the week, He will provide for that work as well.
He did! Getting up this morning, I asked God to please help me be mostly finished with class prep by 10:00am so that I could have time to go take a shower – somehow I was more than ready by 9:30am. Usually it takes me until 1:00pm, with way more preparation in the week before. Classes went smoothly and were pretty fun, and I came back to the office to write this post and head to bed.
And just now, the head of the 7th grade found me and told me that the English teacher might still not be back tomorrow. Fourteen volunteers from an American high school just arrived, and they’ll be working with one of the classes that is now missing their teacher, so could I be ready to take over their classes if she doesn’t show up in the morning? Oh, and they’re the first and second periods.
Take a deep breath. There is enough time. And He is already helping.
On Thursday morning, I got up thinking that I would have a peaceful day of preparing for my Sunday afternoon classes, with just one class that afternoon. I was planning on taking a shower during the first period, and having some good Bible reading time after that, and then getting ahead on my work enough to be able to take Saturday completely off for my Sabbath. But during breakfast, one of the administrators at the school came and told me that our head English teacher wouldn’t be there today or tomorrow, and could I teach three of her classes each of those days? And the first one is in an hour.
Thus began a non-stop, don’t-waste-a-second two days. Teaching lessons on material I’ve never used, as well as preparing my own class, and teaching piano, leading morning readings, and preparing a teacher training program… I had to constantly remind myself to just take the next step, just take the next step, just do what I can do right now. Flipping open my journal on Friday morning to cry out to God for help, I saw the title of the previous entry: “There is enough time.” It stopped me in the midst of my thoughts, reminding me again to trust that He knows what He’s doing.
I knew I needed to stop and rest on Saturday, to take a Sabbath as God’s gift to me. So many times throughout that day, I thought, “Am I crazy? I have so much left that I need to prepare for; four hours of class tomorrow, a whole weeks worth of classes after that, finishing the teacher training, scholarship applications, and more.” But I put away all my materials, closed all the in-process PowerPoint presentations, and stuck all the textbooks back on the shelf. I made myself rest like I know God designed me to, telling myself that if God asks me to take a day away from the work of the week, He will provide for that work as well.
He did! Getting up this morning, I asked God to please help me be mostly finished with class prep by 10:00am so that I could have time to go take a shower – somehow I was more than ready by 9:30am. Usually it takes me until 1:00pm, with way more preparation in the week before. Classes went smoothly and were pretty fun, and I came back to the office to write this post and head to bed.
And just now, the head of the 7th grade found me and told me that the English teacher might still not be back tomorrow. Fourteen volunteers from an American high school just arrived, and they’ll be working with one of the classes that is now missing their teacher, so could I be ready to take over their classes if she doesn’t show up in the morning? Oh, and they’re the first and second periods.
Take a deep breath. There is enough time. And He is already helping.
Comments
Post a Comment
thoughts so far