Its a good thing. Believe me when I say its a GOOD feeling. It means he/she is OURS. It means it is TRUE LOVE. It means it is RIGHT.
I have been teetering somewhere between happiness/pleasure and pain for the past two days. Right and left I have been bombarded with messages and God's tugging at my heart. Sermons from our former Colorado Pastor, Children's Hopechest sponsor program (and a DEAR Colorado friend Sarah, whom I just LOVE, who works there and is going to Ethiopia next month for Hopechest---check it out at http://www.hopechest.org/), confirmation right and left, videos of adoption friends bringing their babies HOME this week, more referrals from our adoption group, close friends who I have never met face-to-face who have become some of my best friends, and other little tidbits of information. One minute I am overjoyed by the happiness I feel and the next I'm crying my eyes out missing our child. I have asked myself time and time again how my heart could love and adore a little bundle of brown deliciousness so very much when I haven't even met him/her yet? I cried to Lee on Sunday and he hugged me. I asked if he missed our child and he said "yes." The answer to that question is simply: God gave me a heart for the child HE is entrusting to us to care for in this life. He/she is across the world waiting. The notion overwhelms me everyday!!! How could there NOT be a GOD when he joins families from across great distances?
I have had so many images this week of our happy homecoming, dreams of flying to Wichita and having a swarm of people to welcome us. Thinking of our child and LONGING for him. Again, I say it is a good feeling. A REALLY good feeling. To me, that just means he/she is OUR child and my mother's heart is kicking into gear.
I have been bombarded by statistics this week and have been greatly convicted by one fact. Not everyone is called to adopt or travel to third world countries. But we are called to do SOMETHING. Sponsor a child, send a donation for clean water for remote villages, or just pray. Serve your community, volunteer. SOMETHING. God's very heart is not to forget "the least of these." There are widows in Africa who have taken in 20 orphans to care for. Shouldn't we care for her AND them? God COMMANDS us (not asks us) to love and care for the widows AND orphans, and then he provides us with opportunities throughout the world to do just that. How can we sit idly by and watch these injustices happen?
We should pray a
VERY DANGEROUS
prayer...
"Lord, help me see the world as You do. Break my heart as your heart is broken. Help me to live radically. Help me to do SOMETHING to help these people."
Scary thought to think that God may just be having us step out in faith and do HIS work huh? Sure God could wave a magic wand and do it. But we're His "hands and feet." OF COURSE he wants US to do it! Why wouldn't He want us to step out from our comfort zone?????
So, I challenge you in love to do SOMETHING. ANYTHING. EVERYTHING. You don't have to adopt, but consider these statistics I just heard...I swear I will never be the same after having heard them. I can't sit back and do NOTHING.
NOTHING
is NOT an option!
There are 150 MILLION orphans worldwide. If only 7% of all Christians adopted just one, there would be no orphans left.
For every 2 Americans, there is 1 orphan in the world (US included).
"Lord, help me see the world as You do. Break my heart as your heart is broken. Help me to live radically. Help me to do SOMETHING to help these people."
Scary thought to think that God may just be having us step out in faith and do HIS work huh? Sure God could wave a magic wand and do it. But we're His "hands and feet." OF COURSE he wants US to do it! Why wouldn't He want us to step out from our comfort zone?????
So, I challenge you in love to do SOMETHING. ANYTHING. EVERYTHING. You don't have to adopt, but consider these statistics I just heard...I swear I will never be the same after having heard them. I can't sit back and do NOTHING.
NOTHING
is NOT an option!
There are 150 MILLION orphans worldwide. If only 7% of all Christians adopted just one, there would be no orphans left.
For every 2 Americans, there is 1 orphan in the world (US included).
There are enough orphans in the world to fill Denver's Mile High Stadium 8,823 times. That is 8,823 Denver Broncos games, filled to capacity!
This blog touched my heart. This girl says it perfectly. Life ain't easy, but we have it pretty dang good. Open your heart. Trust God and BELIEVE He will do amazing things.
Stepping out in FAITH only to have it be confirmed time and time again, is the greatest exercise in TRUST and JOY I have ever known....
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Even when it's hard...
Often times, besides the cost of adoption, the thing that stops people from saying yes is, you know, because it might be hard.
People might look at you funny.
The way you live their life might be changed or interrupted.
You might have to give up something to make room for another.
And, what if the child God places in your home doesn't look, act, or fit into the image you had hoped for?
And, well, that would be hard.
And hard is something we avoid.
But can I remind you for just a minute how hard the price of our comfort is on them?
I often wonder where Christians came up with the idea that being a Christian resembled anything close to easy?
I often wonder how so often we miss the entire point of what Jesus is all about?
He is so much more than going to church on Sunday, memorizing verses of the bible, wearing a cross around your neck, and praying at the dinner table.
And can I just tell you something else?
Life is never going to be easy- regardless of how hard we try to put up those walls of protection, regardless of our attempt to make all the right decisions and all the right plans.
And can I remind you that the greatest gifts in life did not come easy either?
When you claim to know the Lord and you call yourself a Christian you are not signing up for easy. As a matter of fact, I can almost guarantee you that God will call you out of your comfort zone, out of your ordinary existence and into a life that you never imagined for your self.
It will be a life that is all about HIM...a life that that glorifies HIM- not you.
So go ahead and love your God so much that you are willing to get out there, get a little crazy, not worry about what anyone thinks...
Get your hands dirty
SERVE
GIVE
LOVE
make your life COUNT.
You might get hurt, you might be uncomfortable, you might not be popular-you might not even recognize yourself when He is done...
but the one thing I can promise you that it will be worth. it. all.
Even when it's hard...
Often times, besides the cost of adoption, the thing that stops people from saying yes is, you know, because it might be hard.
People might look at you funny.
The way you live their life might be changed or interrupted.
You might have to give up something to make room for another.
And, what if the child God places in your home doesn't look, act, or fit into the image you had hoped for?
And, well, that would be hard.
And hard is something we avoid.
But can I remind you for just a minute how hard the price of our comfort is on them?
I often wonder where Christians came up with the idea that being a Christian resembled anything close to easy?
I often wonder how so often we miss the entire point of what Jesus is all about?
He is so much more than going to church on Sunday, memorizing verses of the bible, wearing a cross around your neck, and praying at the dinner table.
And can I just tell you something else?
Life is never going to be easy- regardless of how hard we try to put up those walls of protection, regardless of our attempt to make all the right decisions and all the right plans.
And can I remind you that the greatest gifts in life did not come easy either?
When you claim to know the Lord and you call yourself a Christian you are not signing up for easy. As a matter of fact, I can almost guarantee you that God will call you out of your comfort zone, out of your ordinary existence and into a life that you never imagined for your self.
It will be a life that is all about HIM...a life that that glorifies HIM- not you.
So go ahead and love your God so much that you are willing to get out there, get a little crazy, not worry about what anyone thinks...
Get your hands dirty
SERVE
GIVE
LOVE
make your life COUNT.
You might get hurt, you might be uncomfortable, you might not be popular-you might not even recognize yourself when He is done...
but the one thing I can promise you that it will be worth. it. all.
SO...are YOU BRAVE enough to follow His COMMAND?
Do you DARE to do the 'impossible?'
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