God’s Beginnings Never End

Today’s reading: Genesis 1:1-5

My two experiences as a public school teacher were frustrating. Both ended with my  desperate resignation — in mid term — at the advice of doctors. (I wrote about the last one here. The first one was similar.)

My two experiences as a college teacher, likewise, had sad endings. In both cases I stumbled upon ethical dilemmas at the school, naively brought these to the attention of bosses and colleagues, and became disillusioned — finally ostracized —  as it dawned on me no one else shared my concerns. (It took me a while, but finally wrote about that too.)

As baseball players would say, I am now 0 for 4 and not much of a threat.  I have not managed to land even another interview for a teaching job in more than 6 years.

The world’s educators may not agree, but I know I was born to be a teacher.  God has made me naturally good at it. Teaching is my spiritual gift! I’ve worked with hundreds of students over the years, and I can’t remember hearing a single complaint from them (well, except when I push them to do things outside of their “comfort zone”). And somewhere in my files (very disorganized because I am a teacher, not a secretary) I have many notes from students — official evaluations and personal letters alike — who say things like, “Mr. Cudd is the best teacher I’ve ever had.” (They’re already starting to say things like about me on the “online tutoring” website I’ve recently joined.)

My problem has never been with teaching. It’s always been with education systems that, accidentally, I’m sure, work against good teaching.

At any rate, I bring all of this up because today’s re-reading of the opening lines of Genesis reminds me of something one of my wise and encouraging teaching colleagues said as my very first experience was ending.

“The great thing about teaching is that there’s always something new coming up. A new school year, a new semester, a new week, a new day, a new period. We get hundreds of second chances every week. Nothing is ever permanent.”

This woman had been a stellar teacher for more than 15 years and, accordingly, had weathered much more harassment than I. So I return often to her words — even on matters that do not pertain to teaching.

And returning to the glorious beginning of The Bible brings her wisdom to mind yet again.

God created that first day, saw that it was good, and decided the experience was worth repeating forever.

That is all the inspiration I need to keep on teaching.

Thanks be to God for the myriad of second chances that He brings with every blessed sunrise.