Chalk-dust and Tears

Day two of my teaching at the seminary went well. In fact, it went very well. I really got into it today and my four hours of teaching seemed to fly by. It seemed as though one minute I was driving up to the school and the next I was covered in chalk-dust and I had a raspy throat as if I’d been preaching for hours. As I stood there after class, and practically every one of my students came up to help dust the chalk off me (I am a messy board-writer) I found myself smiling from ear to ear. I love what I’m doing here. I love the questions my students ask, I love having to listen well to understand due to the language differences, and I love the ways the Bible comes to life as we learn together.

Today I even found myself choking up a few times as I taught which totally caught me off guard. I assume part of it had to do with the material we are learning. Whenever the Holy Spirit moves (and the Spirit was moving today) my tear ducts get going. I’m also pretty sure that at least part of the emotion I was feeling stems from the joy I felt at finding myself right in the center of God’s will as I teach pastors here in Africa.

A favorite author of mine, Frederick Buechner, explains this notion of calling or vocation by explaining that the kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. In other words, the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

Don’t get me wrong, right now I miss my family, my home, my food, my bed, and more. But at the same time I am experiencing great joy and I consider it an amazing privilege that God has allowed me to experience this convergence of my deep gladness and the world's deep hunger. My prayer for each of you is that you will find your “sweet spot” one day if you haven’t already. May it be so…