Have you ever thought about all of the paradoxes that are in the Bible?   A paradox is a seemingly absurd statement or a self-contradictory statement that can actually be true.  For instance, you have to die to live.  The first shall be last and the last, first.  Whoever wants to be the greatest must be a servant.  We conquer by yielding or submitting.  We give to receive.  As having nothing you possess everything.  We see unseen things.  We become wise by being fools for Christ’s sake.  We are made free by becoming slaves.  We find rest under a yoke.  We have to be weak to be strong.

Have you ever thought about how unattractive a lot of Jesus’ statements were to His followers?  He seems to live in an UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM, and we are called to live in an UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM.  This means there will be plenty of opportunities to be misunderstood, however, we are in good company.

I’ve been listening to Dr. Jim Wilder’s teaching on “What happened to the children of Christian leaders?”  I found this talk to be fascinating.  Much of the remainder of this blog will be from his teaching.

Imagine you lived back in the day and time of the Apostle Paul.  Let’s say he led your youth group, and you looked up to him.  And then Paul and Barnabas had such a big rift that they have to go their separate ways.  Would you be disillusioned?  If we grew up under hero’s that disappoint us, we really don’t know what to do with the pain.  Did you know that the most generous disciple, the one that gave alms to the poor on a regular basis was Judas?  It just made no sense when he betrayed Jesus.  Often young adults have seen their parents betrayed by church leadership or others in the church.  Jim says, “You’ve never really been taken until you are taken by someone in the church!”  These were people you trusted.  These were people you did life with.  Our kids look at this and say, “Wait a minute, this Christian stuff doesn’t work.”

Adolescents are idealist.  They are looking for something that works, that has no flaws in it.  Sad to say, in most Christian communities we ignore our flaws, and they are never openly discussed or owned.  Kids can see straight through inauthenticity.

However, the part of Jim’s talk that got my attention was the following.  We are really no different than the disciples.  We misunderstand Jesus all the time.  The disciples expected Jesus was going to become a king on earth and take away all of their problems.  The disciples got into petty arguments, and often followed their own way of thinking rather than Jesus.  Character change has never been fast.  Being a Christian does not mean that you never struggle with your thinking, attitudes and choices.  He said that He will be conforming us all into HIS very image, however that takes a lifetime.  This can be messy and difficult.  When we try to gloss over difficulty in our walk, we and others will suffer.  We like to paint our saints very pretty and the sinners very ugly.  And you never figure out how this interaction happens between them.

Basically, Jesus was telling His disciples, “We are going to finish our course rather badly.”  This was when His whole ministry started going downhill.  Remember how popular Jesus was in the early days of His ministry?  People got fed, healed, and some were even raised from the dead.  Right in the middle of everything Jesus begins to change directions, and talks about all the suffering He will soon experience.  They didn’t like hearing those words because it sounds like, “We lose.”  It sounds very different from, “We are going up the hill to be kings!  Who wants to sit on my right and on my left?”  This can sometimes be what happens to the children of leaders.  They got the fish and the loaves and was enamored by Jesus walking on the water.  They heard all about the way Jesus provides.  But at some point, you should reach the place where you hear, “Guess what?  You get to pick up your cross and follow Him and it will look like you lose.”  And then we all have to decide which way we will go.  Will we live from an eternal perspective or for the temporary earthly satisfaction?  Can we admit we blow it sometimes?

Many of us have read the end of the book and we know HE wins.  But if you look at the story down here, for all purposes and all appearances, we lose.  How many of the prophets in the Bible looked like a huge success at the end of their lives?  How many faithful followers of Jesus had painful things come into their lives?  Do we know what to do with this confusion?  Do we teach our kids what to do with this disillusionment?  Jesus never said we would not experience hard times.  He only said HE would be with us in our hard times.  Once you experience His presence with you, it will be enough.

Believers live in an UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM.  Things do not always look like we think they should look.  The number one thing Jesus wants us to learn is that God is real, and God is good.  Will we trust Him?  As we and our children trust and follow the one true God, we can experience the peace that passes all understanding in the midst of difficult circumstances.  We have to show our children that sometimes we don’t understand what God is doing.  And sometimes we even have to work through anger toward God.  Remember Peter?  Jesus told him, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat, but when you return, strengthen your brothers.”  He didn’t say, “If you return.”  He said, “When you return.”  It’s good to work out our salvation in front of our children. (Work out, not work for)  It’s important to show them that sometimes we experience pain in our walk with God. It’s crucial for them to see our authenticity even when we fail.  And it’s important to teach them that our fulfillment will be much bigger than the pain as we keep our eyes on HIM.

Life is not always hard. God gives enormous blessings at times.  And He is not the one bringing our pain, but He does guarantee you that He will use it and redeem it.  Have we painted a picture of “pie in the sky” without growing pains on the journey?

(italics J.I.M. Talks Vol. 12 #10)