Day 4- My Purpose

It is ironic that I’m writing this on a day after I was in my classroom till 6 pm working (ok, I was pretending to work during some of that time).
Anyway, I really do want to thank GOD for giving me a purpose in life (I think that was intentional on GOD’s part- He actually made us for a reason). My life was changed when I read “A Purpose Driven Life” and learned that there really was a purpose in my life.
However I’m not just talking about something that I read in a book (even if it was good book). GOD has done something in my life that I’m eternally grateful, and I’m glad that I was there to hear his call.
It all started about 11 years ago, at the lowest point in my life. I had grown up in a Christian home, but for some reason I shunned GOD. I think it was because I didn’t feel worthy of GOD’s love, and felt I could never live up GOD’s expectations. After leaving home I made the extremely intelligent decision (this is sarcasm) of ignoring GOD.
Eventually I listened when someone explained that I needed GOD, and made a choice to accept my call. I still didn’t feel worthy, but listened when I heard that GOD wouldn’t give up on me. It didn’t matter that I had just been fired from a job because my shop lost $20,000 worth of merchandise (I wasn’t responsible, but was the fall guy).
Anyway, that was the first step. The second step came about a year later, when my step-mother said, “Mark, I think you should become a teacher.” At the time I passed it off, because I didn’t it was something I could do. I wasn’t such a great student, and didn’t think schools would ever welcome me back.
A few months later I had a friend ask me the really mean question: “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” That, of course, is just mean, especially since at the time I was working in a dive shop selling scuba gear (a real good use of my B.A.) I said, “Either teaching, or being a manufacturers rep.” At the time I had hoped that I would become a manufacturers rep, but had just seen one come to our store. He was a nice enough guy, but I realized he was spending his Thursday night at a male establishment (nude bar), buying drinks for a bunch of 20+ losers who were too lazy to get a real job. Ok, we weren’t bad guys, and all of us have gone on to greater things, but we were all in our mid 20’s and not really focused on any job.
He was a guy 5 years ahead of me, and I saw that he had to spend all his time away from his family, and I didn’t want his life. I drove to my dad’s house, and on the way I had an epiphany. GOD came to me and said, “Why don’t you become a teacher?”
I must have looked like a madman driving in my car and talking to myself, but GOD was with me and hitting me in the head. I decided right then and there, “I want to become a teacher!”
Since then, GOD has used me in incredible ways. GOD made me a special ed teacher, when I didn’t think that was what I wanted to do. I was afraid of middle school, and bang I end up working 7 years in a middle school (I’m probably a lifer now, so that’s where my heart is).