Thursdays are long days, starting with running out of the house to catch the 7:10am bus and finishing with my 2nd class of the evening at 9:15pm. So what do I agree to do last week? I agreed to take on additional student teaching hours so I can teach science in the afternoons.
Today was the first day on this schedule and I LOVED it and amazingly I'm not exhausted. Even though I woke up at 7:02am, even with a stomach bug that has kept me from eating much these past two days, and two papers due at 4:45pm that weren't finished as of 3pm today, and a bus schedule that was horribly behind because of road construction, and piles of unfolded laundry sitting in my room. Even with all that, I drove home from class tonight with a whole lot of joy and big smile on my face. I've had teaching in the back of my mind since, well, honestly, since I was 11 or 12 when I had a fake classroom set up in my parent's guest room with fake students and fake lessons. No joke. And now I'm in it. I'm on my way to the classroom with real students and real lessons and real books.
I can hardly remember the angst I felt at this time last year and the year before and the year before that. My life felt a little like the U2 song "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." But for right now, I have found what I'm looking for--a beautiful city that I love living in, a profession that is thrilling and challenging at the same time (just how I like life), and a crazy new adventure in faith, family and discipleship.
The church family I've been blessed with is taking a step of faith and trying something different from any other church that I've experienced. I'll talk more on that later, but right now what I'll say is this--we're a motley crew. We've all got crazy quirks, but the leaders have this attitude that God can use anyone, anywhere to spread his love, grace, salvation and message of redemption. Kind of like what Donald Miller describes in a recent blog entry. I usually hate chain e-mails, but part of what made my day so great was coming home, folding the laundry and opening up my e-mail to find a chain from this crew that was 47 e-mails long, all about an upcoming potluck. Cheesy jokes were coming out left and right, and it turned into what someone called an "e-mail food fight". But at the heart of all the comments was the joy and love that flows freely between us. Three years ago I was wondering if there would ever be a church community that felt genuine and I'm so thankful to say that I've found it.
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