Why am I here? What am I doing?
If you’ve ever asked yourself those questions after pulling into the parking lot, you’re not alone. (I’d be surprised—shocked even—if you haven’t thought them even once as a Christian educator.)
I don’t pretend to know everything you experience in your ministry, but my wife worked as a PreK teacher at a WELS early childhood center, and my parents are both Christian educators. My goodness. Working as Christian educators, whether in a private or public school or as a Sunday school teacher, is not for the faint of heart. Thank you for what you do, and God bless you!
Why am I here? What am I doing?
It can be easy to fixate on those questions when the days are long, stressful, and downright exhausting. It can be easy to wonder whether you’d be better off looking for a job elsewhere. Dear Christian educator, look at how God lovingly answers those questions in his Word.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” You are God’s handiwork. He has made you who you are in Jesus, who lived a perfect life for you, died on the cross to take away your sins, and rose again so that you would know without a doubt how much God loves you and what you mean to him. You’re his dearly loved child!
As a Christian, then, every God-pleasing thing you do is an opportunity to show your love for God and for other people. He has put you in their lives for that very reason. Not only that, but Ephesians 2:10 also says that God, in his wisdom, prepared those opportunities for you. He thought about you specifically to do those things!
Why are you here? Because God wants you to be here.
God has you right where you need to be. Whether at your school or church or in life itself, for as long as you are here, know that God has prepared ways for you, his handiwork, to show love to him and everyone with whom you interact. Fellow staff and faculty, parents, children, grandparents, and guardians. Many opportunities are in front of you every day!
What am I doing?
That answer is rooted in the first answer: You’re showing love to God and to other people in everything you do and say.
First John 4:19 says, “We love because he [God] first loved us.” You’re reflecting God’s love—the undeserved love that he first showed you in sending Jesus to rescue you from your sins. When you show love to other people, even when they might not deserve it (especially then), they’re not only seeing your love, but they’re also seeing their Savior’s love for them. Your students, coworkers, and everyone else get to see Jesus every day because of you. And they also get to be reminded of what Jesus has done for them when you tell them!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t always make the most of the opportunities God gives me to do that. I certainly don’t always reflect God’s love to the people in my life.
That’s why it’s so important for you and me to remember who we are because of Jesus: dearly loved children of God! He has taken away all our sins, our faults, and our wrongdoings and calls us as his dearly loved children to live for him. He gives us the strength and courage to do that and calls us to encourage one another to do the same.
Dear Christian educator and fellow member of God’s family who gets to serve Jesus, what amazing opportunities you have because of who you are in Jesus: God’s handiwork, his dearly loved children! What amazing opportunities you have because of what you get to do: reflect Christ’s love to others.
May God give you strength to live each day for him!
That They May Have Life is a collection of 71 daily devotions specifically written for those on the front line, whose crucial job it is to bring the good news of Jesus to children and teens. The author shares his own life experiences as a Christian teacher and infuses them with solid law-and-gospel teachings to encourage Christian educators and grow their faith.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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