While There Is Still Hope

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More than likely, most of you have quickly tired of my English teacher analogies, but I have yet another one for you. This week I am at an AP conference at The University of Alabama learning what I need to know to be successful at teaching AP Literature and Composition to seniors at my high school. Most of the teachers in the room (even veteran AP teachers) are anxiously awaiting test scores from the 2013 test administered in May. The thought occurred to me that today there is still hope for good results--not that there is anything I can do at this point to alter the results--I simply wait for them to be revealed. Tomorrow, I may be crushed by my failure to convey important concepts and skills to my students, but today there is still hope. Tomorrow, all my efforts to distill knowledge will be measured on one page with a few names and numbers. Spiritually speaking, I thought of how many of us are now resting in what we've already done or accomplished and hoping that things will turn out well in the end. Fortunately, we have a God who takes the burden off of us by providing redemption through his own sacrifice in Jesus.  We don't have to worry that we've done enough. We don't have to fret anxiously that we will be found wanting when we stand before him. We must simply rest and abide in His finished work. I am much preferring this spiritual mentality to the draining work of trying to measure up in the world's eyes. The Spirit constantly reminds me whose I am and who I am in Him. This is enough.

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