In rest and repentance is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength….

(Isaiah 30:15)

Great Expectations (Part III)____________

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Stephanie, an inner city high school drama teacher in Dallas, Texas, sat alone on the high school stage
at 7:30AM waiting for other Christian teachers to arrive in order to agree in prayer. At 7:45 she realized she
would be the only one in attendance. She was fighting back anxiety regarding several issues in her professional
life and the fact that not one of the seven teachers who committed to meeting at the beginning of the year were
there to pray. It seemed like today was the day she needed the most spiritual support. Stephanie thought of the parable of the sower
and of the seeds choked by the thorns of anxiety and worries. She felt these thorns making their way into her own heart (Mark 4:19)
As Stephanie sat in the quiet stillness, she had a waking vision of Jesus, something she had experienced only one other time
in her life. In this new vision she saw herself sitting alone in a high school classroom. The front chalkboard [dry erase board] was
covered with all of her own expectations for herself and others. The back board was completely covered with the expectations others
had for her. Jesus walked into this room and stood between her and the front board. He walked up to her, bent over her desk, and
hugged her. She was immediately filled with peace. Jesus took her by the hand and helped her out of her chair. Together they erased
everything on the front board. Jesus picked up a dry erase marker and began to write while Stephanie, now seated again at her desk,
began to copy what Jesus was writing. The following is an excerpt from Stephanie’s journal in which she described this vision.
“Jesus had my complete attention. I could not wait to see what He was going to write in lieu of all my personal expectations we
had erased together. It was such a relief to look at an empty clean white board. This is what He wrote,
The Three R’s for Educators
1) Rest (in me).
2) Relax (and know I have it all in my hands).
3) Recreate (by praising me and enjoying my goodness).
In the silence, with Jesus standing before me, I began to reflect on my three R’s. I knew I had not been resting. I
hadn’t taken a complete Sabbath day of rest in over a month. I had recently started rationalizing that going to church was a Sabbath
day of rest, yet I was actively involved in helping produce youth skits at the afternoon youth group meetings and I rehearsed and sang
in the choir in the mornings. On Saturdays I was helping a small group of my high school students create props for the upcoming
school play. I also realized I had forsaken the quiet times of rest I had scheduled in my first year of teaching. I used to set a timer and
take seven minutes of quiet time with the Lord before school started each day to center myself on Him. I had forsaken this practice. I
used to start each class with a minute of silence to quiet the students’ hearts and minds. I had discontinued this as well. I confessed all
this to the Lord and asked Him to renew my commitment to rest in Him and make it a priority in my life.
I had forgotten over the last several weeks at school how to relax. A hallmark of my classroom last year and at the beginning
of this year had been my humor and the ability to set the students at ease. I realized I had been rushing and uptight lately; my classes
weren’t so spontaneous and creative. I had become focused more on increased productivity rather than relationship building activities
and student affirmations and acknowledgements which I discovered resulted in an extremely high productivity rate last year. I realized
my growing fear and anxiety were actually decreasing student productivity and were a result of my trusting in my own self and skills
rather than in the Lord. I confessed this to Jesus in prayer and asked for His help and guidance. I asked for a renewed trust in Him.
I thought for some time on the word ‘recreate’ and the word ‘recreation.’ I thought, ‘Who has time for this?’ I realized I was
living a lifestyle, after only one year of teaching, of all work and no play. Over the last two months I had stopped exercising at the
YMCA which I loved to do and had stopped taking walks down by the river at the city park where I loved to simply ‘hang out’ and ‘be,’
doing nothing but watching the river, the clouds and the crowds of unique people and pets that filled the park. I realized that in my quiet
prayer time with the Lord I had forgotten to praise Him for the good things going on in my life. I was too often bringing before Him all my
concerns regarding my unmet personal expectations for myself and others. This too I confessed to the Lord and began to thank Him
while speaking out loud for all the many wonderful things going on in my life. As I praised Him I felt a hidden darkness leave.
I then realized that this was the best teacher prayer group of the year for me. Jesus knew that I needed to be alone with Him
and not with a group of others. He knew I needed some private tutorials, a detention to get my attention, for inappropriate destructive
behaviors of my own. I hope and pray that in the many days and years ahead of me in education I can learn to correct and speak the
truth into students’ lives the same way Jesus has corrected and spoken to me this day.”
Prayer: Lord, please grant us repentance, rest, quietness, and trust.
Reflection: Am I following or do I need the three R’s Jesus wrote on the chalkboard? Explain.
Getting Real: Repent. Make a “What to Do List” of where and when God wants you to start resting and recreating. Do it. Follow Him.
CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: THE GREAT RACE (For info or prayer contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) WEEK 21

Image “Female Representative Pointing Away” by stock images at freedigitalphotos.net.