SLOW DAWNING

It's funny how slowly my life's "big picture" sinks in to me sometimes. 

For instance, at the end of my weeklong introductory trip to Haiti, our small mission team sat in a circle and gave each other affirmations - which is somehow both highly cheesy and deeply moving. When tasked with describing each of our teammates with a single word, one man said his word for me was "teacher". 

I thought, "Really? I have never thought of myself as a teacher." 

This was about 7 years into my stint of teaching high school English!

These days, I recognize teaching is at the very core of my being. It's a major part of what God created me for.

My latest realization - as fresh as today - and dawning only after ...

• Two years putting together weekly sermons
• 1,994 blog posts on this site 
• Two marketing emails each week for Mission Resource over the past month for a major fundraising campaign along with the weekly email newsletter the previous 30 months

- Is this: 

I am a writer as well as a teacher. 

In fact, I write professionally. 

I get paid to write.

And tonight, this dawning thought - "I am a writer" - seems poised to throw new color across the landscape of my 50s.*

*Maybe I'm one of those pretentious, melodramatic writers. 

Lord, I hope not.