Can we be a Chrissie Olivier to those around us?

She is rather small! Petite, soft-spoken and sophisticated. But in my mind she towers above everyone else. Her name is Chrissie Olivier.

We were going through a very tough time as a family during the last three years of my high school (senior school) education and it affected me deeply. I really struggled emotionally and did not have anyone to share my pain with. I found catharsis in creative writing (what was then called Composition). I envisioned a better life and the words kept flowing onto every paper I set my hands to.

I also struggled with political issues around justice and fairness – having committed my life to Jesus at the time, I struggled to reconcile the values of my own Christian community with how they lived and treated others. This sometimes led to heated debates with classmates. I felt increasingly isolated from my peers because of that. Now with regard to the latter I know that it might have been my own thwarted perceptions – but anyway, that is what I felt at the time.

The only place I felt safe and able to express myself without fear of being rejected was in her class.

She touched me on my shoulder and looked me in my eyes and then she said: “You are so gifted. You must not stop writing. Your English is so good!” She was my English teacher in the late 1980’s.

This woman – so small in stature – lifted this heavily depressed soul from the dungeons of self-pity and isolation. She gave me permission to be me … and she believed in me! She gave me permission to express myself and to think critically about things. I will always be grateful to her.

You see – she did not do anything extraordinary! She simply did the ordinary well. In that moment this ordinary teacher was used by God to do an extraordinary thing. She did nothing more than live her life with faithfulness and love, but God used the small seeds of her daily routine to change a life forever. She simply chose to use her work to empower and to encourage. In so doing she propelled me into a better future. She did not only do that for me, but for many others (including my own children) that I have come into contact with over the years (because I have since that day chosen to deliberately do the same with and for others). Again, I will be thankful to her forever.

In that moment, I came to believe that no matter where you live and no matter what circumstance you find yourself in, the Lord can reach into your life and give your life purpose and meaning.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus – friend of the lowly and the marginalized, the one who identifies with the poor, the one who used the sidelined shepherds to be his mouthpiece, and the one who equips the voiceless to herald Good News for all – it is my prayer that we shall be a Chrissie Olivier to those around us. My prayer is that we shall do the best we can in our ordinary day-to-day lives and work to build others up and propel them into a life of peace, hope, joy and love.