Blog Post #4

The word risk isn’t the word I chose for this year, it’s the word that God chose for me. I’ll be honest and say that it doesn’t really suit me much! I would like to consider myself much more of a “joy” or “peace” kind of girl, but God, in all His infinite wisdom (and humor) brought a word I’ve been running from my entire life, front and center while reading the book, Anything, by Jennie Allen. In one part of the book Jennie posed a question to her professor about the different ways in which we can get to know God. This was his response:

He began by listing all the ways we grow or know God: prayer, studying Scripture, church, worship, experiences, suffering, confession, community, and on and on. Then he said, “But obviously each of these is unpredictable…many people who study the Bible never find God. Many people who go to church never really know him. The only exercise that works 100% of the time to draw one close to the real God is risk... To risk is to be willing place your life in the hands an unseen God and an unknown future, then to watch him come through. He starts to get real when you live like that…Stepping out wholly dependent on God to come through, stepping away from what is secure, and comfortable exposes the holes in our faith. And then if God comes through, it expands our faith. Something about stepping off cliffs where God leads allows God the opportunity to move in greater ways. When we step off and he shows up, we see him differently than we would if we were standing safely looking over the edge.

Although my word for this year is closely linked to my spiritual journey, it is equally relevant to my professional life. During my time as an educator I have had the privilege of working with students of varying ability levels. Regardless of what level the students were performing at, at some point in their literacy experience, they have been required to take a risk (if not yet, they will). Some took a risk by learning to read, sounding out big words or maybe even sharing a story they’ve written. It is my goal to create classroom environments for secondary and young adult students that foster nurturing, supportive, safe spaces where they can take risks and explore new meaningful ways to engage with literacy. I firmly believe that any behavior I would like to see in my students, I must first exhibit myself. During this semester I will commit to taking risks with the types of books that I read, my input in class discussions and in my writing.