By Lindsay Lopez
I began my sophomore year with four classes. I had Honors English, Geometry, Intro to Theatre, and Honors World Geography/ History. The first month of school, those classes were already a challenge, but most of all my geometry class. With two Honors classes, I was extremely busy.
I did not have time for Geometry homework so I used the answers in the back of the book to help me understand what the homework was about. Worst of all, I would stay home from church to finish homework, rush it through before night service starts, or not pay attention to the preaching because I was trying to figure out how I could get my homework done the next day. My Geometry grade was at a low “B”, and if I kept on copying from the back of the book, I knew my test grades would drop down to 30 or 20% leading to an “F” in the class.
There was nothing I could do; my Honors classes just kept pouring it on. I knew I was going to fail my Geometry class. Sure, my Honors classes and theatre class were doing terrific, but an “F” on my transcript would not get me my goals of a career. I started praying, and asking God, what I should do.
I began to understand that no career in the world could compare to eternal life with him. I knew that I was too interested in the earthly things, and not interested in the spiritual things. My career was not going to get me to heaven. Going back to the basics, my not being interested in spiritual things would not help me at all in Geometry. Anything is possible God, but not being involved with God and His kingdom, things are not possible.
I knew that I needed to make God first in my life and surrender everything, even a career. Then one night, I could feel in my heart that God was telling me to join the choir. My first reaction was, “Me, I can’t even sing. I sound horrible. I don’t have time. That, on top of homework, won’t work”. You could say I struggled a lot with my flesh, but I knew it was the way to go.
Well, I finally joined the choir. A couple weeks later, I took a Geometry test. I thought I was literally going to get around a 30%. The next day my teacher told us our grade. I could not believe it! I got a “B+” on the test. It was unbelievable. I thought the teacher just curved or brought up our grades, but she said that was our original grade. I was so excited! I kept up the choir, and my grades in Geometry were rising and rising.
At the end of the semester, after my final, my class grade for Geometry was a “B”. So being surrendered and trusting God’s hand in this was all worth it. God did not fail me, I did not fail Him, and He did not let me fail Geometry. Now I have Algebra 2, I thought I did not know how to do Algebra, but now I remember and understand how to do it. Even now, my choice for joining the choir is still reaping the benefits, and in the future, I will continue to be involved with him and his kingdom.
I thank God for teaching me those lessons of surrendering all and trusting him, because with his children that is all He wants. When we surrender, it is trust because we say “Here God take it all, I’m trusting you to supply me with my every need”. And in learning these lessons, I don’t have worries about things, because I know that worrying isn’t trusting.
Thank You God for all you have done in my life.
Editors note: Lindsay Lopez attends Christ Temple, Phoenix, Arizona. Her pastor is Rev. Gary Hogan.
