Attack of the Alarm Clock: Redeeming the Morning Commute

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With an impending forecast for the possibility of 10-15 inches of snow in Oklahoma, I thought my middle school students would be excited. I certainly was. Snowpocalypse? Bring it on. I couldn’t wait to be snowed in for a week so I could bask in the warm glow of my fireplace while something delicious simmered on the stove, surrounded by stacks of books and absolutely no reason to put on make-up for days.

But if you’ve spent more than four minutes with a middle schooler, you probably know they are committed to the “we don’t care about anything” mantra. Several students balked at the forecast. They acted like I just suggested doing long division for fun. The fact is I knew they would come back with stories of sledding in the snow, sleeping till noon, guzzling 40 gallons of hot chocolate, and binge watching all three extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. 

A Fresh Confession

Despite my students apparently being in a coma, I was ready. Since the principal's daughter happens to be in one of my classes this year (bless her heart), I jokingly told her, “Shayle, you know we are counting on you to talk your mom into canceling school all next week!” All of a sudden my students woke up and stared at me. Hold on a second. I didn’t want them to think I didn’t want to be at school. I actually like these kids. So I confessed, “I love my job so much, and I pray every day on my 20-minute drive to school, thanking God for my job.”

“Mrs. Graney, what’s this cap?” commented one student. (Apparently “cap” now means lie, for those of us who were born last century.) They were shook. I’m not sure why. I’m pretty sure that I smile way more than a normal teacher really should when I’m at school. But they genuinely seemed surprised that I would thank God for my job every day.

Life Support

While I have always been thankful for my job at Cookson Hills, some years are harder than others with more challenging students, more difficult academic needs, increased workload, and people repeatedly forgetting to start the coffee maker in the break room. Stuff like that. When I first began teaching, I would pop right out of bed, into the shower, and be on the road before one could say, “Bell work.” My classroom was my stage, and I couldn’t wait for the applause and encore.

Now seven years into this job, it’s like my alarm clock has the herculean task of resurrecting the dead each morning. Regardless of whether I go to bed early or later than normal (one can experiment right?), I always have to drag my zombie self out of bed. Praying on my 20-minute drive to work has become my life support. “Lord, help me get through this day. Help me to love my students well. I’m so tired. Thank you, yes thank you, for this job.” What I didn’t tell my students that day is that I also pray for each of them by name on my way to school. That might have creeped them out a bit too much. But as Paul says of the Ephesians, I thank God for them and ask the Lord to reveal himself to them.

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  Ephesians 1:16-17

A Daily Sacrifice

When God called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham made plans to obey and believed that God would raise his son from the dead. Even believing that, it must have been extremely difficult to consider this utterly mystifying directive from God. Thank goodness God intervened at the last moment.

The story foreshadows our heavenly Father who willingly sacrificed His own Son on our behalf. Can we just take a second to marvel at that? What if Jesus had chickened out at the last minute? What if we still owed God the tremendous debt of our own sin? But thank the Lord, we don’t. He paid the debt for us. As believers, in response, we are called in Romans to offer ourselves in daily sacrifice.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

I try now to view every day that I show up in the classroom and pour out my days teaching and loving students as my daily (however small) sacrifice.  In some ways, I can be thankful that it’s so hard for me to get out of bed. If it was easy for me to get up every morning, where would the sacrifice be?

I recently finished reading The Hiding Place with my 8th graders. When Corrie and Betsy Ten Boom were taken to Ravensbrook Concentration Camp in Germany for hiding Jews in their home, they discovered that their barracks were infiltrated with fleas. Betsy wanted to thank God for the fleas, despite Corrie’s objections. I’d have been with Corrie on that one. But later they discovered that the guards wouldn’t enter their barracks because of the fleas, which allowed them to freely hold Bible studies and prayer meetings with the women inside.

Shazam! Who else but God could use fleas to accomplish his purposes? If Corrie and Betsy could give thanks in the horrible circumstances they were living in, how much easier should it be for me to give thanks while living in a cozy house with a coffee maker—even if the alarm clock does often feel like a personal attack.

A Final Challenge

My students may still be too cool to sit up at their desks and show a little excitement, but I will keep showing them mine—not just for glorious snow days but for the privilege of being their teacher. I’ll keep thanking God for my job each day and praying for them by name as I drive to work.

Maybe that’s something you could work into your commute as well. Each morning that we choose to drag ourselves out from under the duvet and show up for class is a small sacrifice of praise, a way to love our students well because He first loved us. And if the Lord wants to throw in a few 15-inch snow days as “well done, good and faithful servant” moments, I’m certain teachers everywhere would be 100% for it.

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April Graney teaches middle school English at Cookson Hills, a children’s home for at-risk students in Oklahoma. She is the author of three children’s books including her newest picture book, If Jesus Came to My School. When not researching ways to fight sleep deprivation, April spends her time getting to know her husband again after just beginning empty nest, texting reminders to her 5 grown children, and sharing new grandbaby pictures with anyone she can corner. Download a free classroom activity packet to accompany If Jesus Came to My School at www.aprilgraney.com.

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