Friday, September 15, 2006

He works all things for good


It is a frightening, yet exhilarating experience to let go of the known and proven path in one's life. All of us have had this kind of experience. Do you remember the first time you could cycle without any help? Or swim? The very first camping experience without your parents around, on a scout trip?
Every new step is, in a way, a completely new chapter in your life. You cannot know what is to come of it, even though you hope for the best. So we jump in, daringly (more or less), and get out of it richer in insight.
This is something everybody does. This is the very essence of life: to move on, taste new tastes, play new games, see new sights. And many people fail, ending in depression, anguish, despair. Some even in suicide, not being able to match their expectations with the harsh reality.
What I have recently discovered, and what every Christian has always known (so that nobody may call me Columbus of truth), is that if I put my trust in God, over everything I do, think, plan, then the result is bound to be good. No matter what.
This past spring I had a very unpleasant clash with one of my students. He had cheated on his essay, and he got caught by me. It was a nasty situation, because the boy is clever, nice, and I was very shocked by this case of dishonesty. He got until September to make it up and write the essay again.
This week I got the new essay, and what he wrote in it made me cry with tears of joy.

My teacher made me remember the STOP-sign, and even though I made her disappointed I'll never forget the lesson she taught me. I'll forever be thankful for the lesson I'll carry with me through the rest of my life. God has created us all to do our best in life, to learn as much as possible about how to be a good person. Those ones of us that do this in the best way will get the biggest award of all, a life in heaven. I think that God has a plan for each of us and that it involves problems, things that you learn of. The plan also involves beautiful things that we should remember, but I think that the most important thing is to trust Him, and He will lead us to the right paths all the time, until we start walking on the path to Heaven. Even after the vacation I was not perfect, but I decided to do everything to get as close as possible...


The boy is a Muslim.

It was one of the best moments of my teaching experience. Thanks to the Lord.

I trusted in God to take this situation and help me with it, according to this promise:

And we know that he works all things together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

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