Dear fellow students,
I’ve been teaching at the Living Wisdom School in Portland for about six weeks now. It’s new to me and I’ll admit I was a bit anxious about taking on the challenge. I was told I have all the skills and experience needed to be a good teacher and I would be surrounded by a team of knowledgeable and supportive coworkers who would guide me along.
All this is true, but those wonderful supporters didn’t know my secret: This job would be absolutely the best way to highlight every one of my weaknesses, underscore them in bold, and show them off for the whole world to see.
I feel pretty comfortable and capable in most situations, and I was afraid that I couldn’t pull this off with the ease I feel in other circumstances.
It’s not exactly a secret that God puts us in circumstances that challenge our weaknesses. And certainly God is very aware of my self-imposed limitations. But my secret hope was that becoming free of limitations would be a private project, kind of like extra-credit for school, accomplished outside class.
It’s a pretty silly idea, even more so when I see the thought put in writing, but there it is.
As for teaching – it is highlighting my weaknesses;and I’ll let you imagine what those are. But I’ll tell you what I’ve learned so far: teaching is no different than any other thing put in our path. It requires an open and willing heart, a loving response to all souls, an attitude of service to others, and great diligence to always see the highest good in all circumstances.
I’m learning to accept that class is always in session and teaching may be new to me, but the lessons being taught are very familiar.
In joyful friendship, Lorna
