When God Takes Away Something Good for Something Better
We’ve all been there. You’re in a place where you are quite content and happy; then suddenly God tugs at your heart that it’s time to go somewhere else. At first it feels heartbreaking, you’re doing something good and something worth doing and yet you need to let it go. This is a time where the world’s vision for your life and God’s vision for your life go in opposite directions leaving you to make the decision. This is a time when God calls you to let go of a good thing so there’s room something better.
I worked as classroom aid in the special education class, and now that I was pregnant the administration did not feel comfortable with me being in such a hands on room. I went into work one morning to be told I would go to a general education classroom immediately and stay until I came back from maternity leave. Devastated does not even begin to describe my feelings. I loved the children in my old room so much and truly loved every day I got to spend with them. And yet, God was clearly telling me it was time to move on to a different group of kids with a different set of needs. I cried and complained and did not want it to happen, and then finally I brought myself before God and asked the dreaded question, “Why?” Once I finally asked that question, God began to reveal to me my wants are not always His.
Of course all the work I’d done previously was good and important, but a new season was coming. God also revealed to me that it wasn’t all about me as I so selfishly made it out to be, it was about the kids. Children in a special education room need consistency, a consistency I could no longer give. My maternity leave would be sudden and very hard for them to get used to; the sooner they could adjust their classroom life without me in the room, the better for them. God arranged this transition for them where they can still see me around school, but my absence come February will not completely throw off their entire day.
When God calls you to let something go, it is so easy to be upset and focus on the negatives or what you are losing. When this happens to you, I want to call you to focus on the good it will bring. In my situation, I still get to work with kids and the kids in my new room need me just as much, only in a different way. Once I let myself list out the benefits on my new work placement, I quickly came to love those kids as well. This placement will be an easier one to leave sort of suddenly when my little girl arrives, the kids in my old room will not be so thrown off their routine they can’t get work done, and I will have no worries about the classroom being a madhouse without me.
The God we serve does not do complacency. He does bigger and better. Complacency and staying in the same place does not grow the kingdom; showing as many people as possible His love and joy does.
What in your life could God be telling you is a good thing, but needs to be let go for the better He has in store for you?