the tension

What was taken…

May 14, 2009 at 7:19 am (Uncategorized)

I had my ipod stolen by one of my students yesterday.  It capped off a day of complete frustration with students who were disrespectful of me and the equipment in my classroom.  Somebody even tried to give away my musical instruments to other kids as gifts!  What makes me the most upset about that is that I pour so much of my life into these kids and to have some of them treat me like that is painful.

Then I read this.

Isaiah 65:2-3

All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people
But they follow their own evil paths
and their own crooked schemes.
3 All day long they insult me to my face
by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.
They burn incense on pagan altars.

I think of how much more attention and love God has poured into me, and how often I am ungrateful or disrespectful of what he has done for me.  I’ve taken away from God much more than was taken from me yesterday.

In the same chapter, I was also reminded why, in the face of all that disrespect, I still love teaching…and why God still loves us.

Isaiah 65:8

8 “But I will not destroy them all,”
says the Lord .
“For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones
(and someone will say, `Don’t throw them all away—
some of those grapes are good!’),
so I will not destroy all Israel.
For I still have true servants there.

I refuse to look at my students with the bitter dissappointment I looked at them with yesterday because I know that God still pours his attention out on me when I disappoint him.