Papers & Professor

He sat across from me at my hiding place (the spot I go to rest while working). The table, admittedly, can accommodate more than one person, but I often times like to spread out and use it all, so when he asked if he could use it as well, the internal struggle began.

Quickly it was overcome.

He got his papers out, his pencils out, after setting his coffee down, and then came out the grade book. This white-haired, mustached teacher, or maybe professor, began diligently grading.

So naturally I had to change the music in my headphones to opera (don’t judge).

Business Communication class. Cover letters. Resumes.

The collar of his shirt was worn and discolored, the ring on his left hand once deeply engraved now dulled and scratched following every word written on every paper graded with the well sharpened pencil scribbling learned notes.

Having our papers graded is never fun. It’s a nervous business. We don’t want to fail, but we, in some way, want to learn (otherwise we wouldn’t have turned the paper in, in the first place).

This is how I feel about prayer.

I want to ask for help, but I’m scared of the reproving. Do you know what I mean?

When you know God is sufficient but you’re nervous of being answered? ‘Cause sometimes how could the answer be good? Yet we ask anyway. Trusting what’s to be done will be for our good.

Monday

It’s Monday. The week is beginning. Many of us are headed to our jobs to do our tasks. Many of us are headed to our classes to be bored by our professors while we strive to just pay attention. These things seem so small, don’t they? Jobs, school and the general hustle and bustle of life.

Often these things become our focus, our aim and our goal. To succeed in the arena of job or school becomes a higher dream than knowing God.

We are broken, this is true, we are shattered by the fall but we are not helpless. We are, as faith (singular not plural) so dictates, rescued by the Rescuer.

Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law so that we are now capable to seeing our jobs as fuel for his glory; our schooling is now instrumental to our callings.

So go, work your job; strive to pay attention in your classes. Because the King sits on his throne and the Redeemer of your souls has covered you with grace so your guilt and your shame are no longer you. Who you are, the real you (as a believer in the gospel), is the finished work of Jesus. You are righteous because he has made you so. You stand before the throne of God above with a strong and perfect plea and it is Jesus.