PROFESSIONAL CARJACKING
November 08, 2021
Prayer: Lord, help us confess and clean Discouragement and his family members out of our professional lives. Amen
Scripture: We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Romans 5:3-5 TLB
Melissa, a quite gifted teacher, recently fought the biggest battle of her career against discouragement. She had taught special education classes for more than twenty years. She was a master teacher. Every year Melissa made remarkable progress with the most severely behaviorally and academically challenged students that came to her school. Then her school went to a full inclusion model with no input from faculty or parents. All of the students she served were placed in regular classrooms and so was she!
She felt like someone had stomped the brakes on the vehicle she had been driving at 70 miles an hour, slammed the car in reverse, and put the pedal to the metal. She was now being expected to stay on the road while driving backwards at 70 miles an hour. While the political correctness air bag was hitting her in the face, Discouragement grabbed the wheel and his family jumped in the back seat hoping for a long ride. Murmuring was encouraging Melissa to complain about the decision made and Gossip wanted her to tell everyone what was going on and what a mistake it was. Condemnation and Judgment wanted her to hold continual negative thoughts in her mind about the politicians, educational gurus, and the district and campus leaders responsible for this decision. While this was going on, Discouragement’s cousins, Resentment, Repressed Anger, and Grief jumped in the trunk. Melissa was taken for a real discouragement drive. She was professionally carjacked.
God knew what was going on. He was maturing Melissa, helping her grow up (Romans 5:3). Her identity, strength, joy, and trust are to be fully found in obedience to God, not in what position she taught, what administrative decisions were made, what program she was using, or even her students’ successes and failures. During this trial the Lord reminded Melissa who she truly was — an OVERCOMER, the LIGHT and SALT of the classroom and school. She learned the joy of the Lord is to be her strength, not all these other things she had come to rely on for identity where she worked.
Melissa recognized and started confessing and cleaning out all the junk in her professional trunk and seats. In the name of Jesus she swept out Discouragement and his ugly family members. Jesus once again began driving Melissa’s professional car, and she daily invites Courage to sit between her and Jesus in the front seat.
Reflection: Do I ever confess to God and a trusted Christian friend my professional sins? Does God want me to?
Copyright Don Clark. To connect with the author, email [email protected].
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Wow! These devotions are so relevant! Thank you. I feel like someone else really understands the nature of my struggles.
Thanks for this. We are teaching in “temporary “ fabric booths until we get occupancy permits for our portables plus we have more than doubled in size. Some days it’s a challenge to view all of this as a blessing .