Loving God With All Your Heart

Around the table sat 20 adults from 16 different countries, all seeking to learn English, desperately desiring to be able to communicate. After that day’s class, a Japanese lady lingered at the table until everyone else had left. Then she shyly approached me and told me that she was sad because she couldn’t talk in English. She was heavy with discouragement and shame and kept her eyes glued to the floor. I called her by name and said, “Speak to me in Japanese.”  She looked up, quite surprised at my response. She expected me to say, “Work harder, keep going, you will get it” – a typical teacher response.

I repeated, “Speak to me in Japanese. Whatever you want to say.” She began to answer me in Japanese and then began sobbing. She hadn’t used her heart language in a long time, and definitely not face-to-face with someone. No one had asked her to speak it. Her heart was deeply moved to be able to use her own language and be heard. I told her, “You see? You do know how to talk and communicate. Sometimes we forget this when we are trying to live in another culture with a foreign language. We feel incompetent. Remember that you are able to communicate; you are just learning another way to communicate here.” She breathed a sigh of relief and gave me a hug. She just needed to be heard, to be seen, and for someone to understand her.

I did understand. I have been there. I have moved to another country and immersed myself in a new culture and language, not knowing a single word of that language. I learned the very basics so I could say hello, but then I couldn’t say anything more. So, I learned another phrase, and another. I began the long, slow, tedious process toward communicating. Until I learned it, I felt disconnected from people. I couldn’t share my day, my thoughts, my questions, my excitement for something, my feelings, nor any part of me. Communication is a key foundation of being connected to others, and we all need to be connected. 

Because I knew what she felt like, because I had experienced the same loss of connection and the discouragement that it brings, I was able to treat her the way that she needed to be treated, with understanding. Oh, how precious it is when someone gets you. I don’t know that I would have had this ability to reach her in such a meaningful way if I hadn’t first experienced it myself. I was a linguistically transformed teacher who was able to use my own personal transformation to tap into the very deep need of this linguistically discouraged student. This is what transformation does. It impacts you first, so that you can impact those around you. It changes the way you feel, think, perceive, understand so that you can see others and relate to them.

What does a classroom with a transformed teacher look like?  A science teacher who has seen firsthand the migration of baby sea turtles instinctively making their way across the sand to the ocean is able to excitedly explain to her students the arduous journey for these little creatures. The history teacher who has visited the beaches of Normandy and seen the memorials is able to captivate a student’s imagination at what the magnitude of this battle was. A music teacher who has heard a live symphony performing “The Overture of 1812” is able to help the students “hear” the clash of cymbals and “feel” the crescendo of the finale. These are just to name a very few of the multitude of lessons that a student will encounter over their academic lifetime.

Now imagine, if you will, the tremendous significance of a teacher who is personally transformed by Jesus before he or she enters a classroom. How do they enter? What do the students witness? What is different about it from any other classroom they experience? What does the teacher do or say that is impactful to the students’ faith? Can you see it? Can you feel the difference? It’s powerful! Why? Because God is powerful. He is the One who changes the hearts and lives of your students. And He wants to begin with you.  

How do you personally want to encounter Jesus in a way that changes you forever? How do you want to sit with Him, listen to Him, walk with Him, and talk with Him so that it draws your heart into His presence in a way that you cannot walk away unmoved?

This starts with the moment by moment, day by day, walking with Him. What does walking with Him mean? The definition for this may need to change before we can truly be changed. It has to be more than an insertion into your schedule. It has to be more than a “quiet time” with your devotional. It has to be Him. You being with Him.  More than just a scheduled moment in a busy week; it is a personal relationship that becomes the very atmosphere with which you breathe and move throughout your days. We can be with Him continually. Listening, watching, waiting expectantly, drawing close, soaking up His word like parched ground, seeking His face. Here is where He meets us, in these continual moments, and He transforms us and changes our heart.

I think our biggest obstacle is that we feel like all other activity has to cease so that we can come to Him. We feel like we need to stop what we are doing in order to spend time with Him. Not that it is bad to have time set apart. However, if we wait for this time and it just doesn’t get done today, or tomorrow, or this week, then we are under the impression that we haven’t been with Him until we can fit it in.   

A transformed heart can’t be a “how to” instruction because you aren’t the one who does it. He does. It is a “Who.” Come to Jesus who promises to change your heart, renew your mind, make all things new, bring you His wisdom, understanding and light. All He asks is that you come. Day by day He will be with you and change you so that day by day your classroom becomes a transformed space where students can begin to experience it too.

Susan McCrary
Susan is the Europe Member Care Coordinator for TeachBeyond for the past 3 1/2 years. She and her husband have served in Europe for the past 25 years in missions and leadership. Susan has also loved being a teacher and especially loves seeing students grow in so many ways through transformational education.