Tag: life purpose

Let’s Get to Work!

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In the past 22 years of teaching, things have really changed. Power School is in, paper gradebooks are out. Passing notes has been replaced by posting on social media. And AirPods . . . well, AirPods are everywhere.

Even with all the changes, one key component of school life has stayed the same: The daily struggle to get some students to work up to their potential.

The battle usually goes a little something like this:

“Hey, Chris, what’s going on here, bud?”

“Mrs. Bryant, maaaan, I’m not even doing anything.”

“Mmm, yes, yes, I’m aware . . . that’s actually kinda the problem.”

“But, I . . . “

“No, no, look, it get it. You’re not doing anything like hiding somebody’s lunchbox or smacking your buddy in the back of the head today, and for that, I am genuinely thankful. Truly. But you’re also not doing any work, and that is a problem. You need to do some work because that’s what you’re here for.”

This conversation is often followed by some sighing or some eye rolling or some paper shuffling, but usually . . . eventually . . . the student will start to work . . . at least a little.

It’s frustrating, to say the least, especially when it involves a student who I know can do more but is choosing to neglect his or her work.

This week, I started wondering, does God have the same frustration with me? While I might not be out there breaking laws and causing trouble, I’m not sure I’m always doing all that I’m here to do.

The Bible provides us with some pretty straightforward directions for living. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I’m not saying we all need to drop what we’re doing to take in three foster children, fund two overseas missionaries, and build a Habitat house.

Honestly, we all have different gifts, and I learned a long time ago at Salkehatchie, the Methodist version of Habitat, that using a circular saw might not be the best—or safest—use of my time at a building site. Let’s just say our leaders quickly redirected my energy when I kept running over the nails in the floorboard, causing them to shoot around the room at innocent bystanders and costing us a fortune in saw blades.

But I do wonder if I’m giving my best. Am I following in John Wesley’s footsteps? Am I doing all that I can, by all the means that I can, in all the ways I can, in all the places I can, at all the times I can, to all the people I can, as long as I ever can?

Here’s the thing—just because I’m not doing anything wrong doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily doing anything right.

It’s easy to sit back and rest, to get comfortable with the status quo. But if I get too comfortable, I could forget to use my gifts and talents to care for the lost and the least. Some days I accidentally overlook opportunities to serve, but there have been times, more than I care to admit, when I have turned the other way and ignored the work right in front of me.

We get one chance in this life; there is no dress rehearsal. We need to take advantage of opportunities to reach out and to lift up. We need to share our gifts and love others in order to maximize our potential and live out our true purpose.

So, let’s do it.

Let’s reach out to who we can, whenever we can, however we can.

That way, when we meet our Teacher face to face, we just might be lucky enough to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

Just Do It!

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About three weeks ago, on July 26, Alex and I celebrated the ninth anniversary of our first date. It’s pretty amazing that I remember that date because about two weeks ago, I told one of my friends that we got married in November 2007. When she congratulated me on approaching the 10 year mark, I got really confused because we just celebrated our 7th anniversary. After some quick calculations, I realized we actually got married in 2009. Good thing I had the date engraved on Alex’s wedding band!

My mom never gave me much relationship advice when I was growing up, but after I turned 25, it seemed to increase significantly . . . probably because she wanted me to get married so I would have somebody else to call when I accidentally over-drafted my bank account. Her number one piece of dating advice was this: You’re not going to date the pizza delivery man.

At first, I got all defensive for the poor pizza guy. I mean, she didn’t know my pizza man. He could have been a teacher who had a second job during the year so he could take cool vacations during the summer. Or, he could have been an industrious guy trying to put himself through med school. Who was she to judge the pizza man?
When I settled down, I realized all my mom meant was that in order to find the right guy, I actually had to leave the house. I had to do something, take some action. I couldn’t just wait for Mr. Right to get delivered to my doorstep. When you think about it, that’s actually pretty good life advice too.

I think we’ve gotten too used to things coming easy. From the microwave to Amazon Prime to Siri, we expect things to happen in the blink of an eye or the click of a button. Earlier this week, I was in Belk buying makeup, and I had to wait in line behind two other women. The only thing I thought about while I waited was that I should have just ordered it from Belk’s website so I didn’t have to stand in line- you know, the one that lasted all of five minutes. Ultimately, I didn’t want to have to do the work. Much like a ordering a pizza, I just wanted to sit on my couch and wait for the makeup to be delivered.

But here’s the thing about work- it’s not all bad. It can bring people together. A year after my first date with Alex, he volunteered to help me pack up my classroom in order to move to Mid-Carolina’s new building. What he didn’t realize was that my classroom came with two extra rooms, one with floor to ceiling shelves of yearbooks that dated back to the 1960s. And did I mention my room didn’t have air? And that we ran out of boxes? Yep, it was as much fun as it sounds, but you know what- in the middle of that sweltering room, surrounded by a bunch of musty old books, I fell in love with Alex that day. Not only was he selfless enough to come move a bunch of unbelievably heavy boxes on his day off, he didn’t seem to be completely turned off by my bossiness. I knew then he was a keeper.

Some of my favorite memories revolve around hard work- moving beds and building camp fires at Cherokee, repairing roofs and floors at Salkehatchie, and decorating the Cantey Building for Holiday Market. Don’t get me wrong, hard work can be frustrating, stressful, and downright exhausting. But it also brings with it a sense of accomplishment, stronger relationships, and usually a whole lot of laughs.

Jackson will often ask how a particular athlete got so good at his or her sport. Alex and I both make an conscious effort to tell him that professional athletes work really hard and practice every day. Granted, I’m sure they have a little talent too, but that isn’t the part they can control, so it’s not the part I emphasize.

I have always believed in the power of a good t-shirt slogan. One year, one of the sports teams at school had a shirt that said, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” That saying has always stuck with me. It reminds me of Michael Jordan’s high school basketball career, of how he got cut from the JV team as a freshman. The coaches may have doubted Jordan’s talent, but nobody can deny his ability to work hard. Getting cut served as his motivation to spend even more time in the gym, and in the end, all of the work was worth it.

Last week, Alex commented I seemed “mopey” about starting back to school. I think it was mainly because I am teaching three new classes, and when I started thinking about all the work that will involve, I got scared and overwhelmed.

That’s when I decided to change my focus. Instead of thinking about the work I have to put in, I’m going to think about the joy I will get out. Will every day be full of accomplishments and laughs- heck no! But I have a feeling there will be enough in the long run to make the work worth it. It’s kinda like when I ran the Governor’s Cup Half Marathon. If I had thought about every mile I was going to have to run, especially that hill on Gervais Street, man, I never would have started. I had to stay focused on completing the race, on seeing Alex and Jackson cheering for me at the finish line, on showing off my cool new t-shirt.

Life isn’t easy. Everything that is important requires work. Earning a degree, getting a job, maintaining friendships, building a marriage, raising kids . . . none of these things are just delivered to our doorstep. There are plenty of nights when I’d like to say, “Alexa, put my kids to bed,” but then I realize that while relaxing on the couch sounds nice, I’d miss out on a lot of snuggles and giggles.

In the end, you just have to ask yourself if the sweaty, tiring, challenging task is worth the reward. When you find the answer is yes, you know it’s time to get up off the couch and get to work.

Lessons from Draft Day

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Two big things happened in my life last week: I finished my M.Ed. in Elementary Literacy and Deshaun Watson got drafted by the Houston Texans.  Now, I know you’re probably thinking there’s no way those two events can possibly be related, but let’s take a closer look, shall we?

First, my Masters . . .

I had always toyed with the idea of a M.Ed. in Literacy, so last March, I decided to make it happen.  I really felt like it was what I was supposed to do.  As I got started, I was so excited that this would lead to new opportunities.  This March, however, all of these new doors I thought would open kept closing in my face, and I began to wonder why I had taken so much time away from my family, my students, and even myself to get a degree that seemed to serve no real purpose.

Ultimately, I started to feel like I was doing all this work just to end up with a very expensive piece of paper I was never going to use.  I was beyond frustrated.

And then Draft Day came . . .

For the past few years, I have been a Texans fan, largely because they have J.J. Watt, whose defensive prowess is unsurpassed. He’s been the Defensive Player of the Year three times, led the league in sacks twice, been to the Pro Bowl four times . . . Oh please, who am I kidding, I like J.J. Watt because he’s the cutest guy in the NFL!  They also have one of my favorite receivers, DeAndre “Nuk” Hopkins.  I like the Texans so much, I chose them as my fantasy football team defense last season, and they did not disappoint.

As a Clemson fan, I was pumped to watch the NFL Draft because I just knew, without a doubt, Deshaun Watson was going to be the first pick.  Evidently, there’s a reason I don’t work for ESPN.  Not only was he not the first pick, he wasn’t even the first quarterback drafted.  In fact, he wasn’t even the second quarterback taken.  Picks came and went, and Watson was still on the board, so by around pick 10, I was done and ready for bed.  That’s when Alex pointed out the Texans were coming up, and they needed a quarterback.

Wait, what?

Are you telling me Deshaun, Nuk, J.J., and even Jadeveon Clowney, could all end up on the same team?  That would be better than I could ever imagine.

Well, the Texans did pick Watson, and the disappointment I felt with the first pick was completely replaced with excitement and relief.  Watson is going to an established team that has a history of making it to the playoffs, instead of to a team where, apologies to Browns fans everywhere, quarterbacks often go to die. On Friday, it was funny to be able to look back at the night and see that instead of getting all worked up (and possibly throwing things at my TV), I should have just relaxed and trusted that Watson would go where he was meant to go.

And that’s what I’ve come to realize about my life too.  Sometimes, the first pick isn’t always the best pick.  Sometimes what we think we want isn’t always the right thing for us.  Sometimes, it takes 11 tries before we hit the jackpot on the twelfth.  The key is to have faith, to do what we can, and then to trust that it will work out, often better than we could ever imagine.  I may not put what I learned in my Masters program to work right away, but I have to believe there is a purpose for getting it, even though I may not be able to see that purpose right now.

When you really think about it, Guns N’ Roses said it best years ago: All we need is just a little patience.

And Go Texans!