Last spring I “Got Off the Ferris Wheel” and quit my teaching job. So as I pursue what God really wants me to be doing, I am substitute teaching. Yesterday was my first day.
Now, I have taught school for twelve years, but yesterday was quite possibly the first day I have ever felt like I was supposed to be there.
And I didn’t teach one thing.
Monday night I scrolled through the substitute teaching positions available for the next day, and I came across one for a high-schooler who has special needs and will need help getting his materials out of his book bag and onto his desk, and he will need someone to feed him. This was out of my comfort zone. I taught elementary school, and I have never felt, what you would say, “called” to work with special needs children.
I immediately put my phone down and with it any thought of taking this job. Except that the thought kept jumping back up at me. I looked again at the position. I put my phone down. I picked it up again, and read it one more time. Then I put it down again. This continued several times and so did the pounding in my chest.
Why am I afraid to take this substitute teaching job?
Then His thoughts began to answer, and they became mine.
- Jesus loved everyone. Took care of everyone. Treated everyone with respect.
- This teenage boy deserves someone to want to know him – to spend time with him.
- Jesus is enough for this. Do you not believe He will give you everything you need?
- Don’t treat him like a leper. Love him. Embrace him. Just as he is.
- This is a child of God just like you.
So I took the job. And I prayed all night and all morning.
When I got to the high school I met a young man. A young man who has more wisdom and understands this world and eternity better than anyone I have ever met.
This young man was born with Arthrogryposis, a congenital disorder that affects the joints and muscles. One in 5,000 children are born with this disease. He is in a motorized wheelchair. He operates it with his chin. He wears a head brace with a long pointer when he needs to type on the computer.
As I spent the day with him, I met a young man who sees life the way we were meant to see it.
He shared his story with me. He shared his heart with me. And these are a few things I heard:
- Even if there was a cure for my disease, I don’t think I would want it.
- I don’t know why people pity me because I am so happy.
- They keep telling me that I’m going to die by such-and-such a date, and I don’t know why. I’m not dying yet.
- I choose to see all that I am and can do.
- I want to use my story and share it with other people.
We talked about Jesus. We talked about prayer. We talked about when in Heaven things will be perfect.
This young man told me about life with a perspective I don’t know if I’ll ever have. And yesterday he fed me more than I could have ever fed him. The blessing was mine, and God led me there because I still have so much to learn.
When have you received an unexpected blessing after being obedient or when have you been blessed by an unexpected person?
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