Okay, I have something to say.
I want to be a teacher. I mean, that is what I really want to do with my life.
I don't care about teaching music. I don't care about teaching math, or English, or...any of that stuff.
I want to teach people how to live. I really want to teach young people, but it wouldn't bother me if I was teaching your grandmother. I want to teach people how to live a full and blessed life. I don't care how young or old; I don't care how much time the person has left on this earth. I want to teach people the challenges and joys of living true life.
I don't want to be the next Joel Osteen. This isn't about telling people how to live a peachy-keen life. I want to teach people how to live well the life they have.
There's just one problem (I should say at least one)--I'm a coward.
Some times I have a hard time addressing an apparent issue with a friend. How am I supposed to live as an example to hundreds of acquaintances and thousands of strangers? I don't know how to start meaningful conversations with people who have the same core values as I do. How am I supposed to engage the interests of people with whom I can't relate?
Even when I know what I need to say, I hold back wondering, "is this the right time? How will they respond? Am I practicing what I'm about to preach?"
"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (James 4:17)
As if that weren't enough, God makes it clear what kind of work he does in contrast to the work of the flesh: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7). If I truly love the people I interact with--if God's loving spirit is at work in me--it would make sense for me to act boldly, not timidly. Jesus told his disciples that when they were going to be challenged for their faith they need not worry about what they would say in their defense. Instead they were to trust that the Holy Spirit would give them the words to speak when the time came (Matt. 10:19, Mark 13:11, Luke 12:11, 21:14). Granted, I'm not being persecuted and put on trial for my faith.
Fear is what holds me back; fear of not being accepted, fear of being mocked, fear of being challenged, fear of being WRONG.
But I want to be a teacher.
Trouble is, "not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1).
It's too late for me. I cannot escape the fact that I WILL BE A TEACHER. I must; that is the passion that God put in me.
The question now is this:
Will I cower in fear of the potential ridicule and chiding of this world,
OR
Will I continue boldly, fearing only the certain judgment that awaits my cowardice?
