God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing
he leads out the prisoners with singing
Psalms 68:6
This is a wonderful verse about adoption. There are lots of wonderful verses about adoption. Because it is a Godly thing to bring hope to the hopeless, to set the lonely in families. But it is not for everyone. Sometimes I get a little annoyed with adoption blogs wielding these verses as swords of guilt, rather than The Sword of the Spirit.
Yes, I want people to adopt. Of course, we hope our story will inspire others to enter into the awesomeness that is adoption. But as my wise friend Steph always says, “I am not the Holy Spirit in a skirt” (I would never say this, mainly because I would never wear a skirt). If God has called you to adopt, you will know if and when. You’ll feel that knot in your stomach and just know. You will. And from all I've read about "after the airport", you're going to need that anchor of a God-told-me-to moment to hold onto.
One gracious thing that God has taught me this year is that His yoke really is easy and His burden really is light. What excites you, what makes you giddy, what you have a million ideas about, what you absolutely can’t wait to get started on (even if you know it will be hard) – that’s what He’s called you to do. I’ve spent so much of my life drudging through things He never intended for me to do, never gave me the skills to do.
I am just about the worst teacher you’ve ever met. Anyone who sat through the painful awkwardness of that lesson they bribed me into teaching in Brazil will wholeheartedly attest to this fact. So knowing this, of course I decided to teach a class a few years ago. Mainly because there was literally no one else who would do it. And I hated it, every week. Not the people mind you, love my peeps to death. But I hated the responsibility of trying to communicate (in my very-not-native second language) the awesomeness of God’s word. In His graciousness, the birth of my son got me out of that mess I got myself into. But there was still a need. So recently I started the class again, not teaching but using the time to facilitate a creative team for our worship services - drama, art, photography, multimedia, movie making, stupid You Tube video finding, etc. Totally my kind of thing. God has blessed us with a group of young people who are wonderfully talented in these areas, and He's blessed with me a wicked sense of order and organization. Every week I look forward to bringing all their gifts together and dreaming with them. I no longer use my ride to church to pray that no one will show up (not even kidding).
You will see our story, you will see our lives as we go through this. If that moves you to act, then wonderful, more than wonderful, God’s speed! But I’m not going to guilt you into adoption if that’s not what God intends for you. Because I'm not the Holy Spirit in sweat pants.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment