Thursday, April 20, 2006

Quitting our jobs

Last May Wick was finishing his first year with a school district fairly close to our lake place. I had been teaching in the Dallas area for several years, and looking for something closer to where Wick was teaching. On Memorial weekend, his principal called me in for an interview and hired me. We were elated. We would be working together, in the same program, and could live at the lake full-time.
The first eight weeks were great, driving to and from work together, having lunch together, enjoying our work, and happy to be working for our principal, a strong Christian.
Then....eight weeks into the year, our principal told us he was going to leave. He had been having major health problems, and his doctor had advised that he take a less stressful job. We got a new principal.
On the one hand, we were sad to see our principal leave. On the other hand, we had a commitment to the program, and to the kids, and wanted the new principal to be successful. As the days and weeks went by, we both found certain events unsettling, uncomfortable, unpleasant, even. But we reminded each other how much we were enjoying working together, and living at our lake place.
Then, one day, we sat down to eat lunch together as usual. We looked at each other, and almost in chorus said, "I think we need to leave here. There is somewhere else we need to be."
We wrote our letters of resignation.
We feel that we acted on faith in God and in each other. Both of us having the same thought at the same time seemed to confirm the rightness of our decision.
So here we are, looking for different jobs. Some days, I feel a bit stressed about all the effort that goes into looking for a job: writing resumes, asking for letters of recommendation, getting copies made, etc.
But underneath the "busyness", in my heart, I feel a great sense of peace about our decision, and excitement about what God has planned for us in the future. Are we crazy? I don't know. don't think so. We both feel that God has given us a spiritual gift for teaching and working with students in disciplinary programs. He will not allow that gift to go to waste. Perhaps we will find and use other gifts; perhaps this particular gift will not be the focus for the immediate future; we don't know where we are going, but we look forward to finding out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i know i've already said this, but i just can't WAIT to see what He does next!

it's SoooooOOOoo important that when you have a big decision like that you're in unity. Praising God for the way He spoke to you both about such a big change!