Last fall our church held an election for Readers to conduct the services. I have withdrawn from being considered in the past, citing a busy schedule as a reason for not being able to do the job. This had not changed. But this time when the voting began I held to the concept expressed by Christ Jesus when he said "not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). I was elected and accepted the position.
My busy schedule caused a bit of concern on my part with respect to doing justice to the job. But the thought from Proverbs, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (3:5), kept coming to mind. God governs His kingdom with perfect harmony and order. I reasoned that I am always in my right place and I simply need to trust that God's inspiration is available to me as long as I listen for it. Reading has been a wonderful experience.
During the day I have a job as a high-school teacher. I have been teaching for only five years, and I have had some difficulty with the tradition of seniority that is part of assigning classes. A year ago, I was pulled from teaching physics because of a drop in enrollment, and assigned to teach classes that everyone else had refused to teach. Rather than face this problem, I left the position and went to another school, where I was assured that I could at least teach some classes in my area of expertise.
