Editor’s note: Eric Osberg is the Athletic Director and Varsity Girls Soccer Coach.
“Or think about your career. It might be smart to jump to a new job every few years, depending on your field, but to master your craft and become incredibly good at whatever you do — parenting or architecture or teaching or business management or flying airplanes — takes decades. You can’t do what you love until you’re good at what you do. But sociologists argue that to become really good at your craft takes most people about ten thousand hours — that’s at least a decade of hard work. What would it look like to seize upon a dream for your life and run after it? Not at a sprint, but at a slow, steady pace, ready to wait for a very long time to see God’s calling on your life materialize and bloom into life?
“Or think about your city and your place in it — church and neighborhood and relationships. We’re so rootless. So transient. More tourist than citizen. But what would it look like for you to be faithful to the Kingdom of God in your place, not for a few months or years, but for a lifetime?
“The question I want to leave you with is this: Where has God called you to be faithful?
“…Whatever it is, the odds are that it will be hard work. It will be painfully slow. And frustrating at times. The best things in life always are. But trust me it will be worth it.
“So keep at it my friends. Don’t give up. Not yet. Be faithful, like the God you worship.
“And never forget to live in the moment, because the moment is all we have.”
from God Has a Name by John Mark Comer, pages 210-211
I feel like most of my A word from… posts start with me saying; “I don’t like reading,” but then I quote books I have been reading. I have come to realize I really do enjoy reading when they are books that interest me. Author John Mark Comer has quickly become one of my favorite authors. This summer I read his book, God Has a Name: What You Believe About God Will Shape Who You Become. A great, easy read that has challenged me a lot this summer. The quote above comes from the chapter entitled, “Abounding in Love and Faithfulness”. This passage from the book stood out because I was thinking about my life and my work at FRCS. This is the start of my 21st year at the school. That is wild to think of! When I started teaching at FRCS my wife and I had no kids and were just kids ourselves. We had just moved to Colorado from Indiana with no jobs. We had been married for a year and I had just graduated college, and so we hadn’t a care in the world. We decided we needed a change and moved out here with friends from college, knowing only two other people in the area. Talk about having faith in God to provide. Fast forward 21 years and we now graduated our first son from FRCS who is getting ready to head to college this fall and our other three kids are currently at the school in 11th, 9th, and 4th grades. God is so good!
I am reminded through this chapter and this quote that as Christians we are doing hard work, but that it will be slow work—painfully slow work. Yet, through everything that we do God is in the midst of that work. Being a teacher can be so rewarding, but it can also be tiresome, grueling, and painful. As Christians we are reminded that life will not be easy just because we are a Christian. This hits home with being a dad and raising kids. It can be both frustrating and rewarding. As parents we are leading and directing our kids, with help from our communities. This is not something that happens over night, over a week, over a month, but months upon months of consistently being there and showing up. But most importantly being faithful to the calling God has on your life.
Wherever you are at right now and whatever you are going through right now, don’t give up. Be faithful to what God is calling you to do. It is something we hear all the time as Christians, but when was the last time that we stopped and thought about being faithful to the calling of God? Knowing that it is a slow process and the only thing we can do is give it to God and trust in Him. I have been reminded of that this summer. I hope that this can be a reminder to you that we are not in a sprint, but that we are in a slow, steady race—a process which allows us to live in the moments that come into our lives without glancing over them or moving from them too quickly.
