One of the wonderful things about being the new person in any setting is that you have an opportunity to make different decisions about who you want to be with the people you meet. It seems like a million lifetimes ago, but I attended a different school each year from sixth grade through eleventh grade, so I understand the freedom that comes with this well. When you are the new person, no one knows your history or has prior experiences with you that color their opinion about who you are. Yet we also have a God-given desire to be known.

Acts 1:4–8

“And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father...”

There are some endings that we choose, and there are others that seem to choose us.

Leaving teaching was one of those difficult endings for me. I had entered education because I believed God had clearly called me there. After years in the corporate world, leaving was not simply a career change. I believed God was calling me into a different kind of mission field, one where I could invest in students, teach them, encourage them, and hopefully make a difference that went far beyond the classroom.

The mind is a fascinating thing. At any given moment, our brains are processing an almost incomprehensible number of signals, interpreting information from our bodies and our surroundings, anticipating what might happen next, remembering what has happened before, and trying to protect us. We often don’t even notice most of it. We touch something hot and instinctively pull away. We step awkwardly and our body responds before we have time to think. We experience pain and our brain tells us something is wrong.

Our nervous systems were designed to protect us. But what happens when the very system designed to protect you begins to misfire?