A Point of Intersection

When I was a little girl, I remember hoping and praying that God would allow me to be a missionary in a foreign country some day. I could not have been older than eight because I remember making those prayers while sitting in the pews at Faith E Free. I really had no understanding of what it meant to be a missionary in another country-- in my child's mind, God sent the people who were really good at their faith to be missionaries overseas and everybody else had to stay in the States. Clearly I was mistaken in my beliefs, but at the core of my being was a desire to serve God with my life.

Somewhere during middle school and high school, I decided I wanted to change the world. I also decided that I wanted to play college basketball and make as much money as possible. It's funny how some things work out better than others. At that point, my motivations weren't the same as my younger self because I wanted the attention for changing the world. I honestly cannot remember where I first read it, but I once read a story about a person (although I'm pretty sure it wasn't Nelson Mandala) who wanted to make a difference in the lives of youth, so s/he was going to pursue a career in law. This person quickly realized, though, that the best way to help youth in the system was to keep them out of the system in the first place and the best way by which to do that was to keep them in school. In turn, s/he decided to become a teacher. Once I finally got my head on straight in college and decided I really wanted to be a teacher, I realized the glorious burden God had placed in my life. He had (has) provided me the chance to change the world each day with the students he has placed in my classroom. I finally desired to be a teacher because of the students, in spite of myself. I want(ed) to take full advantage of the opportunity God had (has) placed in my life.

During the spring break of my sophomore year of college, Rachel and I and a mess of other friends chose to spend the week serving with a church in Tijuana, Mexico. I distinctly remember our first Sunday and the multi-hour affair that church was for them. I loved it. I also remember looking around the sanctuary during corporate worship and realizing that I am worshipping with the worldwide body of Christ. These people are my brothers and sisters in Christ. THIS is what eternity will be. Last week in church, our pastor pointed out that our church alone offers worship services in six different languages. Although I was attending the service offered in English, I would venture to bet at least ten different languages were spoken by the people in attendance. I saw people of at least ten different ethnicities and I myself was sitting with two Canadians. During class last week, we were exploring the ideas of self and identity in terms of multilingualism and multiculturalism. In my class of sixteen students, I had nine different languages spoken at competent fluency. And that's excluding my own fluency in sarcasm.

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All this to say, my life has hit a point of intersection and it is beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. Never would I have imagined as a little girl that I would actually be teaching English overseas. Never would I have imagined as a teenager that I would be given the opportunity each day to change the life of our world's youth. Never would I have imagined that I would be surrounding myself with people of all nations. But this is my life right now and, more than ever, I don't want to waste a moment of it! Every day I am living amongst the masses of the lost and hurting who are looking to be word changers themselves. My prayers as a small child are being answered at the same time as my prayers as a selfish teen as are my prayers as a humbled college student. These are the moments I was meant to live. This is the hand of God in my life. This is the life I certainly don't deserve.

Soli deo gloria.