Paradox of Jesus

Have you ever had a day or experience where God shows you the fruit of your ministry but humbles you greatly all at the same time?

This happened to me Monday. In the midst of God showing me my teaching was not in vain, He humbled me greatly. This paradox is hard to explain and comprehend all at the same time.

You see God has been working on my heart and giving me a passion to create missional hearts in my students. I have devoted one class a week to focus on a country, trying to help my students realize the body of Christ reaches to every tongue, tribe and nation. Now, I truly believe this has all come about because God wants to stretch my own heart to become more missional, which is usually how He works with me. This approach I loving refer to as His back door approach!

For the first six weeks of school each of my classes learned about Afghanistan. We talked about how 99% of the country is Muslim, and how few Christians there were in Afghanistan. Trying to explain to a first grader that someone might believe in a different god is a very difficult concept. I kept saying to my students that we needed to pray that the people in Afghanistan would believe in the real God, and that people who loved Jesus would go to Afghanistan to tell them about the real God.

Now, as of Monday it had been over a week since we had talked about Afghanistan because each class had picked their own country to study the rest of the semester.

At the end of chapel on Monday, the student who prayed for the entire school prayed this:
Dear God,
Help everyone obey their teachers, help all the sick kids get better, and help everyone who has a test make a 100. And God, help the people of Afghanistan to believe in the real God. Amen.

As tears streamed down my face, the paradox began. It was as if God was saying to me, "My child, you are shaping their hearts to be like Mine. Oh, how I long for your heart to be like Mine. For you to yearn and long for the things that matter most to Me, to love with My love, and forgive with My forgiveness. I want all of your heart precious child."

That God would chose to use me, someone whose heart is so far from His own when it comes to other nations, to teach His children to have a heart for the nations. That He would call someone to teach His children who has learned so very little.

This is the paradox of Jesus, and the miracle of Jesus.

He is made great in our weakness.

He is glorified through our dependency on Him. When we admit our failures and shortcomings, He closes the gap and makes up the difference.

Humble me, so You may become even greater in my life Jesus.