Don’t Leave Them Where You Found Them

When I was 16, I wrote a letter to Mrs. Grace; she was my honors English teacher, third period. I mailed it to her that summer before I left for college, just a pretty little floral note card with a rose colored envelop. In the letter, I thanked her for inspiring me.

I heard, several months later, that Mrs. Grace was quite touched by my note. In fact, she showed it around the school so several other teachers (one of the teachers who saw it told this to my mother). I’d had an awful English teacher experience the year before, and honestly wanted nothing to do with writing. Mrs. Grace changed all that. A quick letter was the least I could do, and I never expected it to mean so much to her.

Well, on Monday, I went to teach my weekly homeschool literature classes, and the mother of one of my prior students – a young man who is a freshman in college this year – told me that, when she spoke to her son the night before, he told her that he felt unprepared for all his college courses, except his English course. And, he said, he knew he wouldn’t have been doing well in English without his two years in my classes.

I knew, then, how Mrs. Grace felt.

I teach because I love writing and words and books, and I want my students to share just a little of that enjoyment. And, knowing that I have had a positive, tangible impact on one of my students – that’s a reward in itself. I’ve left my fingerprint on this young man, on all the kids in my class, I hope.

Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing, as Christians? Leaving Christ’s mark on others? There was a musical on Broadway – briefly – about 20 years ago, Chess (lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, a.k.a. the BB in Abba). In one of the final songs, Endgame, Anatoly (the tortured Russian chess player) sings, “They leave all those they touch the way they found them,” referring to people who don’t pay attention to anyone because they are so wrapped up in their own lives. I think of this line often – I don’t want to be one of those they, someone who leaves people how I find them, who isn’t allowing myself to be used by God to show Him in the lives of others.

Am I doing this? Not as well as I could be. The Lord has brought me far, but not nearly as far as I need to go. Still, my prayer is that no one I touch is left where I found them. And, as I look back on my life, I see others God has used to touch me, to bring me to places He wants me to be.

Like Mrs. Grace.