Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Sunday School (10/25/07)
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TITLE: Sowing Seeds | Previous Challenge Entry
By Harriet Sabatini
10/29/07 -
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“It’s not about you,” Lou said to me, exasperated, “Or your failures. It is about showing up, praying and having faith that God will use you.”
What was on my face did not reassure her. She softened, “Janie, you have a lot to offer these kids.” She put a hand on my shoulder, “Look, it’s about planting seeds. You’re trying to stuff the whole corn stalk down their throats!”
I had to chuckle myself out of my despondency with that comment.
“Good,” satisfied, Lou went on, “Challenge them – as you did in your own life.”
My pitiful, but prepared seed bag was at the ready as I faced my sophomores. Their faces were less expressive than the granite wall around our churchyard. I wanted to get a toehold and scale the fence but I took a deep breath and began the lesson. Months had passed and I had not bee able to excite them about anything more than who was going to win the next football game. They all comprised several different high schools, all rivals, so the task was not easy.
I slapped my thighs, “So!”
The group jumped. The stones rumbled a little. How to make them a rich fertile field?
“God wants to work in your lives. Oh profound, I thought but went on, “This week ask Him to show Himself to you in a particular way. He will. Then come back and share.”
I gave them a hearty smile that hid my struggling heart.
Dutifully, we all arrived in our classroom the next Sunday. As they filed in, I awaited a bit anxiously, like a farmer does for rain when the seeds have been planted. There was nothing to show on their faces that an encounter with God had happened.
After prayer and the lesson I murmured, “Well, did anyone have anything to share?”
“Besides football scores,” I added hastily, which closed more than one mouth, “We will talk about that at the end. I wanted to know who met God this week.”
My heart fell as I listened to the silence and caught the sidelong looks. No, I thought, it isn’t about me at all. It is about meeting them here faithfully – and showing them God is interested in them.
A hand slowly crept up.
“Yes, Theresa?” I inched forward in my chair.
“Well, I don’t know if it was God or not,” she began.
“It was! It was!” Just in time I stopped myself from speaking out loud.
“Well,” she continued shyly, “I went to get my driver’s license this week. I was really scared. And you know you have to pick a number to get in line?”
I nodded, eagerly.
“Well I picked 28,” she answered with a deep breath, “That’s my soccer number. And all of a sudden I wasn’t nervous anymore. I knew God was with me. Is – is that what you meant?”
A seed had sprouted.
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