There have been many sleepless nights in the past ten months that I have found myself in a puddle of my own tears because of the circumstances I find my loved ones in. More often than not these are situations relative to my students, occasionally family and friends. As I lay thinking about these things there is one truth that continues to run through my mind “He must become greater, I must become less.” John 3:30.
I know this sounds counter-cultural, somewhat motivational, yet seriously impractical in today’s world. Seriously, how do you use this as an encouragement to a suicidal teen who feels abandoned by everyone who once loved him/her, a confused adolescent in midst of deciding whether to live with their father or mother, or a student who just cannot understand the equations in math, conjugations in foreign language, or retain knowledge through rote memory as is required in history causing this young person to fear failure due to unmet expectations in a highly competitive society? Sure, it is easy to tell the state championship athlete to give God glory, but what about these other students? Can we equivocate “sucking it up” to becoming less for Christ’s sake as if they are actually tantamount? And in the midst of this, how am I supposed to be an effective minister?
The startling revelation is this paradox, this counterintuitive truth – we must lose our life to save it (Luke 17:33), suffering and defeat opens the window to victory and accomplishment, and freedom comes in fulfilling our life’s calling. Moments, better yet – times, of tribulation bring us to our knees. There is no place to go when our world seems to crash down, when things go wrong, we cannot find a way to meet expectations or satisfy “the man”. However, the good news is this: through our obedience to Christ, our dedication to our call (following His perfect plan for our life) we can preserve our life for eternity.
I will be the first to say that I don’t know what this looks like for you…but I know what it means for me. It means coming home with a shoulder soaked with teenage tears, only to fill the pillow with my own. Sometimes it means in delighting in the joy of success for the sake of God’s Kingdom. At all times, it means preaching the gospel.
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1 comment:
Cool to see that you are in the blogging "community." The love you share for your students is inspiring. I wish we worked together on the same district...that would be cool. I wouldn't want to be in "Yankee" country though.
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