“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8
I recently participated in a Walk & Talk as part of my institution’s Spiritual Renewal Week activities. The event pairs a staff or faculty member with a student for 30 minutes of strolling across campus, chatting, and praying. I had never volunteered for the event before, but it sounded like a great opportunity to support our students, so I signed up. Then, being an introvert who had just signed up for an event that involves being paired with a stranger and talking to them for half an hour, I immediately regretted having done so. While simmering in my uncertainty about how the event would go, I heard the Renewal Week preacher mention that she had been praying for all of the events of the week including the Walk & Talk conversations. I was reminded and reassured that the Lord was going before me and would be with me during the event. I ended up having a good conversation with a student who really needed a listening ear and some encouragement, and I was honored to have the opportunity to pray with her at the end of our walk. As we were parting ways to head back to our regular afternoon plans, she commented that she had never participated in the Walk & Talk before and was really glad she decided to give it a chance. It seemed I was not the only one who had experienced a bit of trepidation about trying something new.
One of the things that I love about librarianship is its continual newness. This semester I have been invited to teach in courses that I’ve never visited before and have been asked to present on topics that I haven’t gotten requests for in the past. Will I talk to Intro to Ethics students about metacognition and reading comprehension skills? Sure! Discuss information literacy and media literacy with upper division social work students? Yes, please! Meet with journalism students about compiling biographical information on local figures? Count me in! For me, these new opportunities in my librarianship follow the same pattern as the Walk & Talk — agree to do the new thing, regret having agreed to do the new thing, angst for a while, ask for God’s help, do the new thing. And God is faithful every time.
We all encounter a lot of new territory – new things we’ve volunteered for and other changes that are not our choice – but we can be reassured that the Lord not only goes before us, but He also promises to be with us in all of the new territory we encounter.
Julie Sweeney
Julie is an Instructional Services Librarian at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California. An ACL member since 2017, she currently serves as the Secretary on the ACL Board of Directors.