We finally moved into our new house the second weekend of the month. With our weekends freed back up and nothing standing in our way, we made it to the 9:30 gathering on Sunday morning. What an accomplishment considering we had a hard time making it to church at 11:15 when we lived a mile from the parking lot, and now we have a 40-mile drive. When I walked into the auditorium, I saw a huge, wide-screen projection screen in the background and two large LCD TVs on the sides of the stage, both with crisp, clear, MOVING images . . . large theater lighting . . . four huge speakers mounted throughout the room . . . it was what I'd been dreaming of for the last few years but hadn't seen come to fruition. I started feeling sorry for myself because the quality of the production didn't suffer at all after I left the staff, and it had just taken a major leap forward and I had nothing to do with it. It didn't help that the bulletin had been redesigned and almost all of the elements that I had contributed were gone. For a few minutes, I think Satan was having a lot of fun annihilating the pride I had in the eight years worth of investment I had made.

Then God moved in and shed new light on the situation. First of all, nothing I had done was of my own power or creativity. God has given me any ability that I have, and He has used it in His time to bring us this far. Last fall, He finished using my gifts and chose to use someone else's so that He could use the gifts and abilities that He has given me in other areas of my life. He freed me up to move to a different place in life and allowed others to move to different places in theirs.

Later in the week, I started looking at this whole subject from another perspective. The first time I was asked to create a bulletin for church, I was so excited that I got to transform a publication that had been unchanged for years into something fresh and exciting (for the time). I couldn't believe God had given me the ability to design something in the first place, and for me to be entrusted with the church bulletin was awesome. (I never could have imagined what I would do over the course of the next eight years.) But there were others who came before me who took pride in their work, and had put together what they thought was the best possible design for years. God had given them abilities, and they had used them in His time - time He had given to them. Now it was my turn. I wonder how they felt. I wonder if they had some of the same feelings that I have had now that my time is over.

Some of the responsibilities I have with my new position - curriculum coordinator, A+ coordinator, and special ed director - are requiring me to take programs that were created by someone else and revamp, retool, or recreate to move us to the next step. How do those people feel about what I am doing?

Life is about steps. We never achieve perfection, but we hopefully take something that someone else hands us, improve it, and hand it off to someone else better than we received it. The next time you're tempted to throw yourself a pity party, rip up the invitations and thank God for using you to contribute to the growth and improvement of something - and for opening new doors as you take new steps in life.