For the past few months, in the middle of a career search, I have been working as a substitute teacher for several local Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) programs. These programs are all located within local schools in the area. Many of them have classrooms that are carved out of vacant classrooms in the school building. School districts that have deaf children who live within their districts will usually send the kids to the appropriate program. These programs are usually outside of the child’s home school district, so some of these kids will ride on buses for trips up to 30 minutes to reach a school where many of their peers don’t live by them.
It’s been an education for me to see what it’s like to work as a teacher in the field of public education. Growing up as a student, you don’t really understand how much work goes into your education until you become a teacher, paraprofessional or an administrator. I had no idea for my own education either until I started getting involved in these DHH programs.
It is my belief that God tailors a person’s life to that person and what He wants to teach that person. What I mean by this is each person is given a life with experiences that helps illuminate things that God wants that person to understand for their life. No person has ever nor will ever live a life that I have lived. The same is true for you. We all are wholly unique with distinct perspectives that we’ve gained by our unrepeatable life and all the high peaks and the valley lows within it.
There is no mass producing you. There is no factory pumping out a billion copies of you. You are a first and only printing. You are a collector’s item. You are a limited edition.
Think about it: you are a byproduct of your culture, era, geographic location, gender, (dis)ability, family, technology and countless other variables. If we were somehow able to take you and all the DNA that led to your creation and place you several hundred years in the past, could you truthfully tell me that you would still be the same person with the same opinions, ideas and ambitions? A honest answer would have to be no.
So, the question becomes, why are you here now? Why did God create and place you where you are here? The simple answer is that God wanted someone who is you, someone who has been and who is currently being shaped by the very life you’re living now. There is no mass producing you. There is no factory pumping out a billion copies of you. You are a first and only printing. You are a collector’s item. You are a limited edition, completely made by hand. God wanted you.
If you are starting to feel your life is a bit more significant and weighty than you had ever considered, that’s a good thing because I believe that we have a responsibility from God for being who we are. Consider this: If you are the only person with the accumulated result of all of your life experiences, then don’t you think you have an unique outlook and a special vantage position that you can take advantage of when it comes to helping others?
Did you ever think why God specifically picked Mary to give birth to Jesus? She was shaped and suited to be the mother of the Christ. How about David? The boy shepherd became the Shepherd King. And Paul? The well-educated Jewish theologian became the premier Christian theologian after his Damascus Road experience. I could go on and on, but the Bible (and history) is full of stories of people who were specifically suited for what they did because of the accumulated life experience they had.
Why am I bringing all of this up when I’m talking about my experiences as a substitute teacher? It’s because in my recent journeys, God has been taking me to places that I traveled to in the past and has been showing me the flip side of my childhood experience. It’s been a strange, surreal trip. I have been feeling a little bit like Scrooge being led through his past by ghosts in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
For instance, I substitute taught at my old high school. On my first day as a sub, I discovered the faculty cafeteria that I didn’t even know existed when I was in a student in high school. I’ve been meeting various educators from my past. Working with them has helped me see how much work went into my education, things I never really understood nor could when I was a student.
I also ended up at my old preschool one day and met my third grade teacher there. Not content to have me relive my childhood, God also has me reliving my collegiate experience. I have been asked to pitch in as an adjunct sign language professor for my college. It is a strange thing to be on the other side of the classroom as a professor instead of a student.
It doesn’t end there either. Now that I’m a parent of two children, I’m starting to see in a new light all the work my parents went through to raise me and my siblings. I’m positive that the older my kids get, especially when they start entering school, I’ll start gaining more insight in things that I didn’t understand before. I’m hoping to use all of the things I’ve learned and all the things I’ve experienced as a child to help my children navigate their life.
Having been led on this recent journey, my new experiences have led me to grow in huge appreciation for all of my teachers, my parents, my family and all the people who had a direct, positive hand in my upbringing and education. This journey has also helped me realize how unique I am because of the life I’ve lived and all the experiences, insights and viewpoints that came with it, and more importantly, what I can help others with because of all that.
How about you? How can you help others because of who you are and the live you’ve lived?
childhoodDavideducationGodMaryPaulresponsibilityteachunique
A Vantage Position
March 6, 2015
Devotionals
Comments Off on A Vantage Position
Matt
For the past few months, in the middle of a career search, I have been working as a substitute teacher for several local Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) programs. These programs are all located within local schools in the area. Many of them have classrooms that are carved out of vacant classrooms in the school building. School districts that have deaf children who live within their districts will usually send the kids to the appropriate program. These programs are usually outside of the child’s home school district, so some of these kids will ride on buses for trips up to 30 minutes to reach a school where many of their peers don’t live by them.
It’s been an education for me to see what it’s like to work as a teacher in the field of public education. Growing up as a student, you don’t really understand how much work goes into your education until you become a teacher, paraprofessional or an administrator. I had no idea for my own education either until I started getting involved in these DHH programs.
It is my belief that God tailors a person’s life to that person and what He wants to teach that person. What I mean by this is each person is given a life with experiences that helps illuminate things that God wants that person to understand for their life. No person has ever nor will ever live a life that I have lived. The same is true for you. We all are wholly unique with distinct perspectives that we’ve gained by our unrepeatable life and all the high peaks and the valley lows within it.
Think about it: you are a byproduct of your culture, era, geographic location, gender, (dis)ability, family, technology and countless other variables. If we were somehow able to take you and all the DNA that led to your creation and place you several hundred years in the past, could you truthfully tell me that you would still be the same person with the same opinions, ideas and ambitions? A honest answer would have to be no.
So, the question becomes, why are you here now? Why did God create and place you where you are here? The simple answer is that God wanted someone who is you, someone who has been and who is currently being shaped by the very life you’re living now. There is no mass producing you. There is no factory pumping out a billion copies of you. You are a first and only printing. You are a collector’s item. You are a limited edition, completely made by hand. God wanted you.
If you are starting to feel your life is a bit more significant and weighty than you had ever considered, that’s a good thing because I believe that we have a responsibility from God for being who we are. Consider this: If you are the only person with the accumulated result of all of your life experiences, then don’t you think you have an unique outlook and a special vantage position that you can take advantage of when it comes to helping others?
Did you ever think why God specifically picked Mary to give birth to Jesus? She was shaped and suited to be the mother of the Christ. How about David? The boy shepherd became the Shepherd King. And Paul? The well-educated Jewish theologian became the premier Christian theologian after his Damascus Road experience. I could go on and on, but the Bible (and history) is full of stories of people who were specifically suited for what they did because of the accumulated life experience they had.
Why am I bringing all of this up when I’m talking about my experiences as a substitute teacher? It’s because in my recent journeys, God has been taking me to places that I traveled to in the past and has been showing me the flip side of my childhood experience. It’s been a strange, surreal trip. I have been feeling a little bit like Scrooge being led through his past by ghosts in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
For instance, I substitute taught at my old high school. On my first day as a sub, I discovered the faculty cafeteria that I didn’t even know existed when I was in a student in high school. I’ve been meeting various educators from my past. Working with them has helped me see how much work went into my education, things I never really understood nor could when I was a student.
I also ended up at my old preschool one day and met my third grade teacher there. Not content to have me relive my childhood, God also has me reliving my collegiate experience. I have been asked to pitch in as an adjunct sign language professor for my college. It is a strange thing to be on the other side of the classroom as a professor instead of a student.
It doesn’t end there either. Now that I’m a parent of two children, I’m starting to see in a new light all the work my parents went through to raise me and my siblings. I’m positive that the older my kids get, especially when they start entering school, I’ll start gaining more insight in things that I didn’t understand before. I’m hoping to use all of the things I’ve learned and all the things I’ve experienced as a child to help my children navigate their life.
Having been led on this recent journey, my new experiences have led me to grow in huge appreciation for all of my teachers, my parents, my family and all the people who had a direct, positive hand in my upbringing and education. This journey has also helped me realize how unique I am because of the life I’ve lived and all the experiences, insights and viewpoints that came with it, and more importantly, what I can help others with because of all that.
How about you? How can you help others because of who you are and the live you’ve lived?
Share this:
childhoodDavideducationGodMaryPaulresponsibilityteachunique