the blessing of your prayers…

i got an email yesterday from a man i respect more than most. in it, he mentioned briefly “i can’t recall a night this year my children haven’t prayed for you by name.”

does that give you chills? it fills my eyes with tears of both joy and unworthiness at the same time. Joy because i know that God’s answering those prayers. unworthiness because someone, especially children, are investing their time and emotion into my life. there’s no bigger investment, and they offer it to me so freely. since the first month of this race, God’s been teaching me a lot about His Kingdom. He’s been teaching me that exposing my weakness is the only way to be free from it, that the best way to handle someone abusing grace is to show more grace, that the way to become great is to get low and serve, and that God doesn’t do math – He goes after the individual heart…

 

in January in the DR i watched children leading worship. they knew love and they knew how to meet with God. in haiti the kids sang with more passion than i’d ever seen. they understood worship. in cambodia the kids sang and danced, and a 16 year old boy had given up a lot of his father’s blessing to teach students about Christ. he understood sacrifice. In malaysia, the homeless kids didn’t know what they didn’t have, they lived simply and were content. in mozambique, the kids had a pure inquisitiveness to them. they knew enough to seek answers to the questions – to pursue truth. in jo’burg, the street kids knew that community was the right way to live, and that honesty – no matter how painful – is right. and here in romania, the kids want to be loved. period.

 

i guess kids get Christ. kids understand His Kingdom. they understand trust. they understand love. they understand grace. but somewhere we become more ‘civilized.’ we lose the passion, the innocence and the purity we once had – which is a shame because it’s the pure in heart who will see God (jesus’ words, not mine).