Today, I was blessed to chat with a coworker who is also an all-the-way Christian. She was asking for advice on how to broach a subject with one of our students out of concern for the student’s future and reputation. That conversation led to one about a staff meeting on the second day of school during which they told us we were to have no political conversations and absolutely no religious conversations with students.
Politically, I just want my students to be able to think for themselves instead of believing everything they hear. I don’t think any of them have a clue as to how I would vote in an election.
Religiously, I don’t walk around preaching, but my students know I’m a Christian. More than once I’ve had a student ask me to pray with them. I will not turn down that request.
As we talked about the new mandate and what it might mean for our jobs, I said, “Well, I need to let my husband know I might get fired.” She laughed heartily with a similar response.
I shared a story with her about my first-year teaching during which a young man asked me about Jesus while pointing to the Bible in my purse. The memory shakes me up to this day. I told him I wasn’t allowed to talk to him about Jesus.
When I ran into him a few years later, he was “high out of his mind” and very obviously suffering severe physical effects of his years-long drug addiction.
I’ll never know if anything I could have said would have helped him. And that’s the thing right there. I will never know. What I do know is, in that moment, I did not feed God’s children (ref John 21:15). And I will never let that happen again.
I might not be facing persecution like other Christians in the world. But still, in a country whose mention conjures ideas of freedom for people all over the world, I face the very real possibility of getting fired if I don’t turn away a student who wants to pray. I’m not chasing them down. I’m not asking them. But I’m not turning them away either.
I love my job, and I love my country. But real freedom is not granted to me by either one. My freedom comes from Jesus Christ. He is the only source of real freedom.
I have prayerfully considered writing and publishing this piece. I’ve made the decision to publish this anonymously, because while I want to share the freedom I have in Christ and His love with you, I don’t generally walk around putting my head in a noose. In this particular case, getting fired would be the opposite of serving the students God has entrusted me with. However, I want to declare unequivocally that if I’m ever forced to choose between my Savior and a real noose, I hope to be smiling when I slip on the noose and singing His praise when the floor drops. Would it seem redundant or obvious to say that I trust the Lord with my livelihood? It’s only a matter of time before someone catches me in prayer with a student. If I am ever going to give them a reason to fire me, that will be it.
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17).
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
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