Facing the Impossible

The last day of school is always bittersweet. There is the sadness of goodbyes, the swelling rush of emotion as I realize that next year, I won’t get to look out into the sweet, smiling, familiar faces of these students who have become so dear. But there is also a sense of pride as I think about how far each student has come, mingled with the joy of seeing another year of teaching come to a successful close.

With the rush of last-minute details, awards chapel, and early dismissal, the finality of it all doesn’t usually hit me fully until I walk back into my empty classroom.

By then, the exhilaration of being “done” has dissipated, and the classroom has taken on that peculiar feeling of desolate emptiness you feel after a party when your friends have all gone home.

Everything seems too still, too quiet.

This year, sitting at my too-clean desk looking out over the freshly-scrubbed desks and chairs and empty baskets, I can’t help but think of those busy, hectic, even frantic days before the beginning of the schoolyear, when everything felt uncertain, changeable.

It seemed then as if the schoolyear would be a long arduous ordeal. I clung to 2 Corinthians 12:9 as I tried not to panic about all the phone calls and video conferences I was told I would have to make. (Click here to read the post I wrote about that.)

As it happened, God was extremely merciful, and at the end of the chaotic last three days before school began, we were granted permission for the younger grades to meet in person half-day, drastically cutting down on the phone calls, and (for me) rendering the video conferences unnecessary.

The year had its challenges, just like any other schoolyear, and there were days I felt overwhelmed or uncertain, but God proved Himself not only faithful to help, but also true to His Word: His grace was sufficient for every difficulty I faced.

Before school began this year, I made a new background for my school computer with a quote by Amy Carmichael:

“It is great to be faced with the impossible, for nothing is impossible if one is meant to do it. Wisdom will be given, and strength. When the Lord leads, He always strengthens.”

I clung to that quote, and read it whenever I felt overwhelmed. As I read that quote today, it dawns on me that, instead of clinging to the quote I know ought to be true, I now can rejoice over the experience of a schoolyear spent proving those words to be true.

“Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it.”

1 Thessalonians 3:3