It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride, when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought...it figures.
Alanis Morisette so had it right, which is why whenever this song is played I crank it up and belt it out!
I tend to find many things in life to be ironic, so this season is nothing new in that sense. But there seem to be so many things for me to chuckle @ and say, "It's just so ironic that..." Not everything will be shared, but here are a few things.
Ever since I first became a fan of Mark Batterson's podcasts, I said that if I ever moved to D.C. I would go to his church. But for some reason when I actually decided to move here I knew that I would still be wise to see what was out here for me to be a part of. I stumbled across DC Metro Church by Googling "DC metro, church"...thinking that I wanted to find a church in the DC Metro areas, right? Well, if you do that, the first site listed is www.dcmetrochurch.org (who knew?). So I checked out the site, listened to a couple of podcasts, and fell in love with the church! But then I mapped it out and realized it was in Alexandria. Immediately I pulled it out of my options because the schools I had been interviewing at were in the northern part of DC and I was looking into living in lower Maryland, near there. Then through a course of events I ended up getting a job in SE DC, and I went back to a roommate-finding website to find a place to live. Ironically, there was only 1 option for the area that I wanted to live in, and it was #2 on the list at that time...they had just posted their ad. The area was Alexandria, which I knew to be nice. I'd forgotten all about DC Metro Church, until after I'd moved in and saw the infamous sides stuck in the ground all over our area, telling about the service times. Long story (kinda) short...I remembered how much I'd love my experience on the site and decided to give it a shot. I went. Loved it. Then...
...3 days later I ended up with a really hurt back and couldn't do hardly anything, including live life. lol I'd been so excited to start getting plugged in, but it just wasn't going to happen with my back in its condition. To top it off I ended up having to be out of work for 2 1/2 months! Great. I move somewhere where I don't really know people (except 2 old friends from college who both lived a distance away, and my new roommates who barely knew me)...and this would be another irony. Life would've been a lot easier if I would've been hurt in the place where I already had a ton of friends, right? But, yeah, no...it didn't happen that way.
I finally got to a place where I could do some things, but not enough to go back to work, right at the very end of September. Plus, I really needed to get out of the house and make a friend or two;). One Sunday I hobbled myself into the Potomac Yard Regal Cinema, where DC Metro Church currently meets, and had an interesting experience in my own self. You can read about that here. That week I joined a small group, and I emailed the church administrator to see if I could go into the church office to help out for a little bit while I worked at getting better enough to return to work.
The first couple of weeks I went into the office to work for a few hours at a time. Then it turned into full days, more days a week. The next thing I knew, I was a full-time volunteer...and building relationships with some INCREDIBLE new friends. These people have been some of my closest friends here, and I wouldn't have had that opportunity to spend time with them had I not been hurt, out of work, and volunteering. So I do find it ironic that my being hurt, and fairly alone, the first month and a half of living in a new city (that happens to be a pretty lonely city to live in, period) actually lead to some pretty great, and potentially life-long friendships rather quickly. Yes, ironic.
It gets better.
In some of those first conversations with ministry directors at the church I was very adament about certain things. I wanted to be apart of what was going on there, but wanted to be confident that I was in the area God thought best for me. Being a teacher, I've always had the policy that I would never work in the kids' ministry because I'm with kids all week long...love them like crazy, but wanted to be apart of something else @ church. This is where it gets really ironic to me...
To make a really long story, only kind of long ;), I felt compelled to volunteer for a couple of little things for the MetroKids ministry...which, over the course of a few weeks lead me to being the Coordinator for the ministry. The role itself is still being defined, but the key point here is that I am now playing a role in leading a kids' ministry @ church...this is very ironic. I am loving it though, and am so excited about the dreams I have for the kids in this area. My heart is so big for kids and for discipleship-the two go well together.
Now, there's a whole other part where my work comes in right now. Typically, as an urban classroom teacher, my life is too crazy and hectic to do anything like this. The stress would be too much. But because I got hurt, someone else had to take over my 4th grade classroom (and she's doing such an AMAZING job...so proud of her!). And going back to August, my principal was randomly able to hire an "extra" teacher to be on staff. So because we had an extra person, someone was able to take over my classroom, and they were still able to keep me on as a teacher upon my return...but now I'm the extra teacher! It's great! I get to work with the 4th grade literacy teachers and students (who are all such a blessing to my life) and a couple groups in 2nd grade too. It's been a great opportunity to implement some things I've learned these past few years, and to lessen the stress of classroom teaching! So that frees me up, somewhat, to be able to work with MetroKids in the way that I need to!
And all of this because...I got hurt.
See, have to share this part too. A year ago I was having a really difficult time with life. To simplify it, I was very much depressed. God has done so much in my heart and in my life that I have been able to walk through this life transition, and the situations surrounding it, with such deep joy. Do you realize how exciting that's been? Honestly, my back still hurts. And at times, it really hurts a lot. I come home from work most days and chill on an ice pack because I just can't take much more movement. But I am so grateful for what God has been doing in my life, even though I've been going through this time. Being hurt sucks. I'm not gonna lie. I do get discouraged and frustrated at times. But God always has a redemptive factor in everything I go through. It's because of this truth. He is never surprised by my situation, so even things that seem ironic to me are just right to him. :)
There are definitely a few more ironic aspects to my life in transition, but this is what I will share for now. Be blessed!

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