Who is this person who studies the Bible and then makes a plan and then teaches what she has learned?
She's more than I thought she was, this person who has always said "Dave has the gift of teaching, not me." (He does, though. He thinks and plans and relays information in a way that is astounding and exciting, and I have always enjoyed his teaching as much as any of his students. He sets a high standard because he really is gifted by God with the ability to teach anything.)
The thought of teaching the Bible used to paralyze me. What do I say? What do I do? What if they don't ask questions? What if they ask questions I can't answer? I needed a least a week of lead time to prepare myself. I freaked out every time and sometimes Dave would jump in and save me.
But, as I spend more time reading the book, I find that I want to spend more time talking about it. As I get to know these teenagers better, I want to tell them all the things I know about God, about Jesus, about the history of the Hebrew nation and the early church. I want them to KNOW HIM. I want to tell them all the things. I've annoyed Dave with, "You need to teach about __________" enough.
So, I'm learning to teach.
I don't know if I'm especially good at it because my daily standard of comparison still blows it out of the water every time he teaches, but I kind of love it. And? At some point I realized that I've actually been teaching for years, not the Bible, but software. That's what so much of client support is about - teaching the client how to use the software, demonstrating how it works, organizing information to answer their questions. It was the part of my job that I loved - learning and then sharing what I learned in a way that others could understand.
I don't teach like Dave does, but I've been teaching all along. If I could know software so intimately that I could stand in front of a room full of adults and answer questions on the fly, why can't I know the Bible and share it like that? The answer is, there's no reason at all that I can't. Who knew?
And that makes me wonder what else I can do.
