REVERSAL
February 12, 2020
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for watching over everything that concerns us. Help us to be gracious when we are put through hard times by those we trust or work with. Amen.
Scripture: Fret not over evildoers… Trust in the Eternal and do right… Make the Eternal your delight, and he will give you all your heart’s desire. Leave all to him, rely on him, and he will see to it; he will bring your innocence to light, and make the justice of your cause clear as noonday. Psalm 37:1a, 3a, 4-6 (Moffet).
Everyone who knew my friend Amanda viewed her as a natural teacher—caring, creative, wise, and loving. Another obvious thing about her was that she was not ashamed of her relationship with Jesus. And, being a writer, she always had something in the works toward a book, or a new piece of poetry. She eagerly shared her current writing projects, and it wasn’t any different the day that Ms. Payne came in to observe her.
Administrators had assigned Ms. Payne instead of the principal to evaluate Amanda this year. Because of her position as system-wide coordinator, she knew the curriculum Amanda was teaching, so this seemed logical enough. That day when Ms. Payne saw Amanda’s manuscript near her desk, she asked if she could look at it. Amanda obliged. Of course, like her life, her writing spoke of Christ, and this, apparently, offended Ms. Payne.
Her lesson went well; the class behaved and responded well to the lesson, much to Amanda’s satisfaction. However, when the evaluation came back from Ms. Payne, Amanda read nothing but criticism. This happened each time that Ms. Payne observed Amanda that year. What a crushing blow! Nothing she did seemed to make a difference, and, from her perspective, everything had seemed to go so well.
Sometimes God brings us down before He sets us up, as Amanda soon found out. Even though her evaluations necessitated placement on “assistance” for the next year, —the “Shape up or ship out” phase—God had a better plan. Ms. Payne left the system after that year, and Amanda now was assigned to her principal as her evaluator. It didn’t take long before she was reinstated completely with excellent evaluations. A year later, Amanda won a prized national teaching award.
The key to Amanda’s success was her trust in the Lord, her determination to continue doing good, and her cultivation of faithfulness in that which she knew to be right. We can trust God to bring about justice on our behalf. Even if we don’t receive the honors that Amanda did, we can be sure that God will right the wrong.
Copyright Shirley Wilson. Email [email protected]