Plateau or Practice

The teacher came into the college classroom and silently placed a small pot onto the table. She measured some dirt into the pot, added a tiny seed, and carefully covered it up with dirt. Then she watched the pot. Not surprisingly nothing happened. We looked at each other amused, where was she going with this?

She pretended to consult a book and then carefully watered the pot. She looked at her watch impatiently. Nothing happened. She looked out over her class and asked “What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t it growing yet?”

Several students threw out a few answers “It needs sun”, “You just have to wait”, “It takes time”. The teacher nodded thoughtfully and started her lesson.

“How many of us will have students like this someday? As teachers we know the dream and the vision we have for our students. We have a good idea of what will get them there, they will need certain skills. So we assign them the work they need to do to grow to the goal we have for them. And if they work on what we have given them to practice, and stay persistent, there is every reason to believe that they will reach the goal.”

“But what about the students that won’t. The students that get tired, or bored with what we have assigned for them to do. They don’t want to practice the same thing everyday, especially because they cannot see what it is building towards. They have no way of understanding the components needed for our goal. They feel as though they are going no where. As teachers it is our job to teach our students that most of our lives are spent on plateau’s like this, where nothing seems to be happening. The trick is to learn how to be happy and productive regardless.”

The lesson went on from there, but I was already blown away. I had struggled throughout my life feeling as though I was headed no where. Nothing was happening.Why was I doing the same thing every day? What was I waiting for? What was I working towards? What was the point of it all? Why did it seem so often that God had forgotten me? Like He was busy elsewhere, like he couldn’t possibly have any good or important plans for my life.

But what if I had been wrong?

What if God was just like me as a teacher? How many times had I gotten frustrated when a student came week after week and hadn’t practiced what I had assigned. I had worked that week to prepare a new lesson plan, moving them into the new section of material they had been longing for, only to have them arrive unprepared and being forced to slow the pace once more. I felt bad for their disapointment, but there was no way they would be ready for the next task if they had barely even looked at the previous assignment.

This was not a Christian class, the whole point was that most of our lives are spent on plateau’s. That we need to be happy and productive even when life wasn’t exciting and we seemed to be going nowhere. But it left me wondering if I was like the lazy student, bored with what I been assigned to practice and learn.

Did God have the next step all prepared for me? Was He waiting breathlessly each day to see if I would faithfully practice what I had been given? Hoping that I would be ready to move into the next stage of working towards His goal for me?

I’m not sure if anyone else heard what I heard in that lecture, but I danced out of the classroom that day.