One of my delights is reading biographies and autobiographies, prayers and epitaphs. A recent character study on the life of Elijah has helped me explore the inner landscape of my present experience as a Christian teacher. "Elijah was a man just like us" (James 5:17). That was encouraging and it helped me appreciate God’s dealings with me.
God’s Chosen Hideaway
I WAS to stay in my "Kerith Ravine" (1 Kings 17:3,5) for three-and-a-half years. In Hebrew, Kerith or Cha-reth means to cut off from blessing or to cut down tall timber. Upon completion of my M.Ed., I had to start all over again as an ordinary teacher in another school. Just as Elijah depended on God’s ravens to feed him, I had to depend on God’s promises and the sufficiency of His spiritual resources to enable me to face the upheavals in a new school. My 21 years of experience as a classroom practitioner and my newly acquired academic qualification proved inadequate to meet with the harsh realities there.
God’s call to "Leave …, turn … and hide … drink from the brook" (1 Kings 17:3) and be fed by His methods was a painful and perplexing period. God moved Elijah from the palace of King Ahab to His chosen hideaway, "from public forum as a prophet to a private haven, from the sunlight of activity to the shadows of obscurity" (Swindoll, 2000).
God moved me from the office of afternoon supervisor to the staffroom and the library, from centrestage as an English resource personnel to the classsroom, from the limelight of activity to the shadows of obscurity.
Did God make a mistake? I do not think so. God’s boot camp is designed for my development towards maturity, not for my comfort. Moreover, the Lord declares, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways … as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8–9). God seems to say, "Get away from those things that satisfy your human pride and ego and go live by the brook. It was a period of renewal, remoulding, reshaping and realignment to His purposes. It was a season of learning how to abound and abase by His grace.
How then can I be a light of the world, so dimmed by such setbacks? God reminded me that Gethsemane came before resurrection, darkness precedes the dawn of morning light and ravine experiences are necessary for mountain top vistas.
Have our brooks dried up in our lives as Christian teachers "because there had been no rain in the land" (1 Kings 17:7)? Let us remember that the God who gave us water to drink from the brook can also withhold water. The God who blesses us can also withhold His blessings when He tests us through the baptism by water and fire.
God’s Redirections Include His Provisions
Elijah was commanded to "Go at once to Zarephath…and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food" (1 Kings 17:9). In Hebrew, Zarephath means "smelting furnace". At the end of January 2002, I got a transfer back to Wilayah. To me, it seemed the beginning of perhaps another three-and-a-half years of waiting upon the Lord to fulfil His Refiner’s plans and purposes for my life. The future is unknown to me but known to God.
God knows that in the routine of life and its seemingly mundane tasks, I still need someone to "bring … a little water in a jar so I may have a drink … And bring me a piece of bread" (1 Kings 17:10b–11). Here I learnt that "Only little people will (not ask for or) do little things". As a senior DG2 time-based teacher, I have to learn humility and teachability in each new place. Indeed, God’s redirections include His provisions. Hence, my teaching career has been enriched and enlarged through interactions with different junior colleagues. It was not a "them-us" relationship but rather a "one of us" relationship.
The widow at Zarephath recognised Elijah as a "man of God" (1 Kings 17:18, 24). How then can Christian educators be recognised as triumphs of His grace amidst such situations? Like the widow who questioned Elijah, I too asked God, "What do you have against me …? Did you come to remind me of my failure as a teacher and kill my spirit to teach?"
Elijah replied the widow, "Give me your son!" (1 Kings 17:19) God seemed to say, "Give me your classes, your career, your subject and rest not upon your recipe knowledge and years of teaching experience." Through pain and plain exhaustion (1 Kings 19:3–5) in the teaching profession, I have to learn afresh like the Apostle Paul to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil. 4:4) even though my wings are clipped and mobility is limited. Oftentimes, we only rejoice in the right circumstances. Like the Apostle Paul rejoicing in the prison cell in Rome, I too am learning to ‘celebrate what is right’ in my world from God’s perspective instead of harping on what is wrong with our school or education system.
Develop Depth in the Inner Terrain
This year’s theme for Teachers Day "Guru Berkualiti, Aspirasi Negara (Quality Teachers are the Nation’s Aspiration)" can only be possible when educators develop a sustainable depth in the inner, rugged terrain of their lives as teachers. Truly, "How sad it would be if God allowed our present trial or suffering with all the experience of pain but you and I lost God’s blessing through it because we refuse to receive from it the lesson or key to trust God in the midst of it, which He purposed for our development and to be used to help others" (Crabb, 1993).
Life is lived forward but is understood when I look backward. Therefore my Kerith Ravine and Zarephath journeys have taught me that not all is wasted. They enabled me to appreciate the value of the hidden life. They afforded me the time to look after my late father and presently my ageing mother. They gave me the opportunity to be involved in the Bible Study Fellowship International. They served to teach me what it means to abound and abase and appreciate Christ’s condescension and exaltation by God (Phil. 2:5–11).
They reminded me that teaching and praying go hand in hand. They exposed me to diverse teaching situations and relationships. They helped me to empathise with others who are similarly bruised and battered in the teaching profession and be engaged in the ministry of encouragement. They taught me to be determined to be contented in Christ and not to crave for what I think is my due. Truly I will not be able to talk the talk if I have not walked the walk. These are some of the insights gained from an inward exploration to an upward acknowledgement that the Lord does all things well.
References:
Crabb, L. (1993), Moving Through Your Problems Toward Finding God, Zondervan Publishing House
Swindoll, C. (2000), Elijah – A Man of Heroism and Humility, Word Publishing
This article was first published in In Step, Teachers Christian Fellowship Malaysia Volume 14 Issue 4 2002. Used with permission. |
