WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO? That is a question educators are often asked – to remember your WHY. Many teachers will always say “to impact a child’s life.” If that is always true, then why is there a teacher shortage? Why are teachers either transitioning to private sector jobs or retiring earlier than planned? If I am always told to ask myself WHY, then what happens if the OUTCOME is different than my WHY? It is as if reminding myself of my WHY will just excuse the challenges I am experiencing and just make all things better. What if our WHY is mistakenly connected to tangible outcomes (awards, great scores, recognition, student affirmation)? What if we don’t have those tangible outcomes? Do you forget or lose your WHY? If we connect our WHY to the TANGIBLE, IMMEDIATE OUTCOME, then we will struggle when faced with challenges and trials no matter what they may be. If we don’t SEE results, we may even question our effectiveness and purpose as an educator. Our WHY – “to impact a child’s life”- will no longer be true. We may even ask God a different kind of WHY – WHY am I going through this? I believe that is where education gets it wrong. As a Christian educator, maybe we are asking ourselves the wrong question.
The other day, I read a Ligonier Ministries devotional called “Probing the Remote Purpose. R.C. Sproul begins the devotional with a question that many of us ask – “Why did God allow it to happen?” Now expand that question to education…Why did I not get that job? Why did I not get that award? Why do educational policies neglect everything I do? Why am I overlooked? Why I am not heard? Why am I told one thing but never see it come to fruition? Why does my student have to struggle with this issue? Why, why, why…I can’t possibly list all the WHYS…but education can become so discouraging that some may feel there is only one solution – out!
As R.C. Sproul explains in the devotional, when we ask “WHY,” we tend to assume God could have prevented that specific trial from happening, and if we truly believe that, then we also forget the sovereignty of God. Some of us, by asking WHY, know there is a reason for the pain we encounter but then wonder if is it for good. We may unintentionally believe there is even a possibility of a “no good” outcome. As Sproul explains, the only purpose or intention God has is altogether good. His will…His purpose…His acts…EVERYTHING is ALWAYS GOOD! Nothing can ever happen outside of God’s divine will for our lives. As a friend reminded me last week, there is nothing that happens that is outside God’s design. Sproul ends the devotional with this: “What past or present circumstances in your life have caused you to ask ‘Why?’ Ask God to show you how His good intentions are reflected in these situations.”
This got me thinking… Maybe as Christian educators we shouldn’t be asking what is our WHY but asking God to show us His good intentions through whatever difficult situation we encounter. Educators are in education for a reason. Maybe through the trials of education, though, God is revealing to us HIS WHY for our lives which may not be our WHY. Ephesians 4:1 says we are called to do what we do. We KNOW that His will is ONLY GOOD! There is no other outcome to what we experience. We have assurance in God’s revealed will through His Word which goes back to the ultimate premise of this post…all circumstances, no matter how difficult, has but only one outcome – a good one (see Finding A Job That Fits).
So here is my challenge to myself for the remainder of the year: don’t ask WHY (regardless if WHY for the trial or WHY I am an educator) but through everything, pray that God will show me his good intentions so that I may do what he has called me to do in the job and in the place where He has placed me. I pray I may “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which (I) have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:1).
Deuteronomy 29:29 states “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
