The first weeks of this year have been some of the hardest of my life for many reasons.

My tendency as is true for many people is to manage the hurt. Responding by fleeing, fighting, or freaking. Internally I have done all three. However, the dramatic conclusion I have found is I am utterly helpless.

At this dark intersection came a realization. As I watch my son try to make sense of a new family with new values and a new language I thought of the family of God. We as God’s adopted children have entered into a family with it’s own values and language.

The values and language of God’s family may seem strange at first. Values like letting go of ego, giving God say over all aspects of our life, and putting others first all seem opposite of the world surrounding us. And this new language, prayer, being still and in the presence of the Creator demands the silencing of the typical frentic chaos. Yet here in discovering this new language we find it is actually not new at all. It is our original language, our heart language, lost generations ago.

In these dark moments I have rediscovered this heart language in a fresh way. Prayer is a rest in the midst of motion. When everything is hard, dark, hurting, and I realize my helplessness prayer is the focused attention on the only one who has control, an opening of my heart to His presence with me.

Tags: No Comments.

A year ago I said goodbye to my mom for the last time. The past 365 days have been a wild ride on the train of grief with all the ensuing emotions for all of us.
As hard as it has been there is one thing that has been unwavering. When my phone rings I know it is not going to be news of my mom’s health failing. The years of fearing test results are over. My mom never again has to endure unrelenting rounds of treatment. The unwavering thing is this: my mom is more alive today than she was in her 60 years of earthly life.

We followers of Christ are a resurrected people. We are alive in Jesus in a way we can only begin to grasp. 

These sunny skies will be darkened by clouds again.Unseen and unknown brokenness lurks in the annals of future time. Bad news wages a valiant fight, but I am confident beyond any doubt it is the real loser.

Pain is real and scars ever present. But this life with Jesus is something more; something beyond just here and now. One of the things I have drawn from this day a year ago is I fear no bad news. 

Tags: 1 Comment

As this week starts off there isn’t any thing outwardly that seems different.  Yet we signed a piece of paper on  Saturday that means we are parents. As the ink dried tears flowed down my face.  Hot tears of joy that came out of some deep within me.  Over the past year we have filled out and signed so many pieces of paper and at first this one seemed like all the others.  Yesterday I felt different this deep place within me knew I was a parent and today as I wake confirms that feeling is here to stay. We still have more waiting before we can bring our son home. This has been the name of the game for the past year.  Last November we got a phone call that would change our lives.  We had applied to be in Dillon International’s open options adoption program. This meant we didn’t have to limit ourselves to children from any particular place initially.  Dillon’s director of the Chinese adoption program was the one on  the phone.  She told us about a  six year old boy who they through prayer and studying our file thought would be a good match with a us.  Due to his status in the adoption system we had a couple of weeks to decide to adopt him or not.  We prayed and poured over everything given to us.  We confidently said yes and we sent off our first form to the Chinese government.  We were pre-approved to adopt this little boy who now is our son.  Usually a family is not matched with a child until after they have completed  many more steps.  I know for me the fact I was doing all of this work for this child motivated me in an incredible.  I am so thankful for that blessing. The rythym of paperwork and waiting continued throughout 2016. Now here in October we have reached this Milestone of our Letter seeking confirmation which means we have been approved to adopt this seven year old boy. We signed in agreement and from here we have sent off for all his travel documents some to the US immigration and some to the CCCWA the branch of the Chinese government that handles the adoption.  These will meet up in Guangzhou at the US Consulate who will give us an appointment to appear and our travel date builds off of this. Yea we have a son!!   

Tags: Comments Off on We are parents

Recently I have been struck by ordinary time. I know technically on the church calendar ordinary time is twice a year season that we are currently not in. However, last year I went to at least four weddings,  and over ten funerals.  I buried my last living grandparent and my mother. And on heels of that our adoption agency matched us with a little boy from China. I’m going to be a father!!   All our church responsibilities and pleasures fit in the midst of that. Perhaps it was the six week of my mom’s final cancer fight,  where life happened too me, I began to see everything from a different perspective. The extremes of what is “normal”  life expanded. And God was in middle of it all working. “I will figure_________ out when things settle down.”  As I realize more and more the content of ordinary time I am aware how much this internal speech is an enemy. As we prepared for DNow this year I printed Luke 10:38-42 the story of Jesus visit to Martha and Mary. Jesus says to Martha “There is only one thing worth being concerned about.  Mary has discovered it.” To linger with Jesus in the ordinary times not rushing ahead to a fictional serene meadow that is just ahead.

Tags: Comments Off on Ordinary Time

Last Thursday was cold and drizzly. I was enjoying a relaxing evening on the couch. When suddenly Durango jumped straight up from a dead sleep into full alert. He was inconsolable so I entertained his paranoia and  opened the front door to look. My eyes scanned the darkness and nothing unusual stood out.

Durango’s bay erupted behind me now facing the back door. I closed the front door and spun around. As I let him out of the back door I saw what had caught his attention. A pitiful looking hound dog. It was malnourished and looked absolutely miserable. This stray had the sweetest temperament and I feared it would not make it through the night. I gave it a bowl of food and some fresh water.

Friday morning arrived and I decided that if that dog was still around I would try to see how it would like the backyard. That stray didn’t appear again until Saturday morning, but now it has been residing in our back yard almost a week.

In our youth ministry we have been discussing being Good News to our Neighborhood. As I prepared to speak about Boaz and how he cared for the needs of those in his community I couldn’t help, but think back to this dog. So many people I have talked to since last Thursday have told me stories of a time they took in a stray animal. And all of this triggered a question”When was the last time any of us took in a stray person?”

I am stretching the term stray here. I don’t just mean inviting someone who doesn’t have a home to live with you. There are stray people all around us.  Individuals that have needs which are not being met and who have no power to be able to change that. There are those around us who are going without enough food, shelter, clothes all the time. Even more there are many around us who are not getting enough grace, compassion, patience, attention, and unconditional love. There are lots of lonely people. There are a lot of desperate people.

We are all a stray people wondering through this life searching for the ultimate rest. The rest we will find in God alone. And so for this reason we must keep our eyes alert and our hearts open to take in stray person after stray person. Not out of superiority, but because we too are stray. And together we strays can travel home.

Tags: Comments Off on Reflection on our Backyard Visitor