November 12 & 13, 2011
A knock at my office door disturbed my concentration, but that is okay; I’ve come to see interruptions as opportunities. In walked two women with a vacuum cleaner. Hesitatingly, the younger one, a student, asked me if I would like her to vacuum my office. The young woman laboriously but sincerely sought to communicate. She needed word by word coaching from the supportive special needs instructional assistant who accompanied her. I replied that I would like my office vacuumed and began to help by moving chairs around. The program assistant pointed out every little fuzzy and scrap of paper on my carpet while the student (I’m not using their names due to a policy with the school district) faithfully followed her helper’s tender leadership and pushed the vacuum into new dusty territory.
Each week a short white bus pulls into our parking lot and special education students and their helpers descend on our church. They are part of the Salem-Keizer Public Schools Community Transition Program. The arrangement is to their advantage because they get to practice communication and job skills in an accepting environment. It is to our advantage because we get the office vacuumed! And, today, I received another blessing: seeing love work.
In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll speculate on how this special needs instructional assistant feels at the end of her workday. When she gets home at night, is she discouraged over the apparent lack of progress, or does she have reason to rejoice? Has she fulfilled her goal for the day? What is her goal? Is it to “fix” the student? It is to “solve” the problem? I think not. I imagine that she views herself as serving the student’s special needs. And each day that she demonstrates such tender love to the needy is a day that she has been successful.
You may be called to serve in a way that does not seem to solve the situation. Should you be discouraged? Should you give up and abandon the endeavor? Sometimes success is measured not by completing a project, but by loving people persistently through a process. As I watched the kind instructional assistant serve the young woman with the disabilities, I saw success. I saw that love works.
Each week a short white bus pulls into our parking lot and special education students and their helpers descend on our church. They are part of the Salem-Keizer Public Schools Community Transition Program. The arrangement is to their advantage because they get to practice communication and job skills in an accepting environment. It is to our advantage because we get the office vacuumed! And, today, I received another blessing: seeing love work.
In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll speculate on how this special needs instructional assistant feels at the end of her workday. When she gets home at night, is she discouraged over the apparent lack of progress, or does she have reason to rejoice? Has she fulfilled her goal for the day? What is her goal? Is it to “fix” the student? It is to “solve” the problem? I think not. I imagine that she views herself as serving the student’s special needs. And each day that she demonstrates such tender love to the needy is a day that she has been successful.
You may be called to serve in a way that does not seem to solve the situation. Should you be discouraged? Should you give up and abandon the endeavor? Sometimes success is measured not by completing a project, but by loving people persistently through a process. As I watched the kind instructional assistant serve the young woman with the disabilities, I saw success. I saw that love works.
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