Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone

The Taming of the Shrew

Pushkin Theater

Ashgabat 2009

 

Exodus 4:12 NIV

"Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

I can't remember a time when I didn't like to play "make believe". As children, on stormy summer days when Teri, Rob and I couldn't go outside to play, we'd cover chairs with blankets and sheets and build a "night-night fort". Mom would let us eat Cheerios there, and I think we actually got along with each other during the time we were hidden from sight.

As we grew older, we grabbed chairs and pots and pans and became a rock band playing along with the theme song to Hawaii 5-O. We weren't too bad.

In middle school, our friend, Bekka, threw us into her theatrical creations in the basement of her parents' house after we'd finished Sunday lunch. We'd practice until she was satisfied we had our lines down just right, and then she called our folks to the basement for the grand opening and only performance of our dramatic masterpiece. Actually, most of our pieces turned into comedies, no matter how serious they were supposed to be.

However, as much as I played make believe, I found it easier to speak other people's words than my own thoughts in public. I joined the speech team in high school and gained confidence over four years with being in front of people, but I still felt like I was putting on an act. I was performing.

It wasn't until the summer of 2000 when a political conflict with the school board arose over a proposed policy change that would impact the curriculum we taught, and I was asked to represent the English department in our position, that I had to take a personal stand on an issue and stop letting others speak for me. I was 40 years old, yet I had always managed to be the one in the background to support others. Give the pat on a shoulder. A "rah-rah-rah good job" if needed. I didn't feel qualified to lead this complicated debate nor face the limelight of publicity which would surround it.

However, I trusted that the path we were on was the moral path and the best one for our students, so I looked to God for help to sustain me. He did.

After the conflict was resolved, I saw where God had opened a door to me that had been closed prior to this because I had been afraid to express my opinions.  After the conflict ended, I took on leadership roles at the school, and I was offered opportunities elsewhere, such as the award that took me to Turkmenistan.

By trusting that God would help me find the way to speak and give me the courage to stand before my bosses and deliver words to them they didn't want to hear, but to tell them in a respecful manner, this showed me a source greater than I was giving me words to speak. I wasn't smart enough to do what I did, but God helped me once I got out of my comfort zone.

Sometimes getting out of my comfort zone is the biggest step I take all day.

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Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the words to speak if I open to you and allow you to teach me how to speak.