Monday, November 11, 2013

Why are you afraid?

When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!" He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. (Matthew 8:23-26 NASB)

Adoption is huge. It's hard. It's the right thing to do if you really believe God's Word. I'd heard it for a long time. I knew inside that it was all those things. But, to be frank, I was selfish. I knew that God was asking me for more. Is He asking everyone? Yes. Does that mean that you should start the adoption process right now? No. But, should you do something hard, something sacrificial, to tend to widows, orphans, and the needy? Yes. What we were doing in our family, what we're still doing is important, and is the right thing to do, but, for us, it was 'phoning it in.' Our giving to Compassion International (a fabulous organization) is helpful to Jorge, our sponsored child in Nicaragua, but it isn't sacrificial. It's, frankly, too easy. We don't even have to write a check, it just comes out of our account each month with no thought or effort on our part. I wanted that non-effort to count for our family. But, God had bigger plans for us.

A couple of months ago, Dan (our pastor) asked us to read the Gospel of Matthew for our Adult Community Groups leadership meeting. In a rare turn of events, I actually did...

The above verses grabbed me, then. They grabbed me again last night at our most recent ACG meeting. Jesus asking the disciples, "why are you afraid?" He was asking me, too. That's the beauty of where I am now. I'm not afraid. I am finally in a place where I can look at this mountain that's in front of me, realize that there's absolutely no way up it, and I can turn to God. I can put it on Him. I can say, "I can't do this, but You can!" And He is. He is.

It is incredibly humbling to be this broken down. To finally be a man who can trust God first, and his own efforts second. I used to operate with an attitude of "I'll bang out what I can, then when I fall short, I'll throw it to God and He'll give me a hand." Those times are behind me. They should have been a long time ago. Trust Him first, then act out of that trust. That's what He expects of us. That is His desire for our lives. Not just for adoption, for every facet of our lives.

Rich

p.s.
Status update:

Fundraising is starting to ramp up. Meg (with the help of some other great ladies) is cranking out knitted fingerless gloves, and my boys and I are making paracord bracelets to sell. If you're interested in either, get in touch with us through our personal Facebook pages, or leave a comment on this post.

Also, our application is being reviewed, and we are beginning the search for someone to perform our Home Study. This is our fist financial hurdle as well, as most estimates we've heard on the cost of the Home Study put it somewhere in the neighborhood of $800-$1600. We'll let everyone know when we're going on that.

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