Small things

For seven years, I have been dreaming of teaching middle school in low-income areas of the inner-city. In the past year, that suddenly changed, and I seem to be planning on being a professor. It has been a year of learning my limitations, and learning that God is not trying to milk me dry for his glory.

Sometimes giving up the magic-teacher dream makes me sad, though entering into the professor dream always makes me very happy. One of my college friends teaches as an intercity school, and he sometimes points out that the folks who talked about social justice in our undergrad days are not in similar fields, and it makes me sad to be one of those statistics. At a Christmas party I met a young, attractive, intelligent, energetic guy who plans on teaching middle school in the inner-city, and I was jealous (while also wondering “Where were you for the past seven years?!”)

And then at church this Sunday, I read a quote in the front cover of the bulletin:

Do no think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.

I do not pray for success; I ask for faithfulness.

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.

-Mother Teresa