It was a great week

This week I heard from two friends that are adopting from Haiti. They are in the FINAL steps of their adoption process. Within a matter of weeks (hopefully days) they will be picking their beautiful daughters up and they will finally bring them home. I look forward to the day that I hear they are leaving for Haiti, and I am even more excited about the day I learn they are all home.

Home sweet home.

* * * * * * * * *

I have no updates for you, other than that I played around with my blog a little too much this morning and changed everything. I'll keep tweaking it until I like the layout. Right now I'm too frustrated to work on it.

* * * * * * * * *

I've been thinking this week about the need that's out there. I'm constantly posting on Facebook, sending emails, making calls, and asking for stuff. Constantly. Bottles, clothing, hand sanitizer, money for the iPads. The list goes on and on, and the asking never stops. The need has been there for years. The need is there now. And the need will be there for years to come.

I'm quite certain that I've turned off many people. When I got back from Haiti there most likely were people in my world who were hoping this 'phase' would pass. That I'd get over this and move onto something new. The challenge is, this isn't going to go away. This has grabbed a hold of my soul and God has asked that I never stop fighting, asking, educating.

I'm seeing something bigger in this, but I don't know what it is at this point. It seems my path will long be involved in adoption. Not only continuing with our own adoptions, but helping others in their journey. (Yes, I said adoptionS! I'm planting the seeds for the next one before the first one is even done.)

In my exploring this week to come across just the right thing to share with you all to hopefully help you understand, I came across this blog. This is a post of someone else's blog. She didn't know who to give credit for it, and I don't either. All I know is that the words here are exactly what I'm feeling. (If anyone does know where this came from, please let me know so I can give the appropriate credit.)

It's not going to make you feel warm and fuzzy. It's going to touch on things most of us would rather close our eyes to. But it's something we all need to read.

* * * * * * * * *

Those of us who spend our time focusing on the poor, the oppressed and those who serve them are sometimes confronted with grim realities. The fact is that there are too many problems out there...there are too many children that need help...there are too many women and children who are stuck in sex-trafficking and too many people starving. So, you read a book or you adopted a child or you went on a trip and you were overwhelmed with poverty and injustice. You never imagined that things were so bad. You couldn't believe how cheap it was to solve individual problems-medicines for less than $10, mosquito nets for $5, school fee that are less than your monthly Starbucks budget. You thought to yourself-I HAVE to do something-I am GOING to do something.

You return to America or you finish your book and your mission begins. You start telling your spouse or your best friends. This is unbelievable-we have to do something now.WE have to act. Some of them seem interested but most of them try to wait it out hoping you will get over this latest obsession. But you know in your heart this is not an obsession-its' a calling. It is a new awareness that the kingdom of God has to extend out from you and reach the least of these. You keep going.

Your friends initially tolerate you and then some just quietly phase you out but you are undeterred initially. You press on KNOWING people will want to make a difference. You start reading the Bible with fresh eyes asking yourself why you had never seen that or read that before? Why did I not hear this in church/ You listen to sermons with fresh ears and you hear the repetitive beating of a drum that seems to resound with a self=centered rhythm. It isn't supposed to be all about me is it God? Why are we only focused on making our great lives even better when kids are starving, when young children are being prepared for sexual exploitation every two minutes? I guess that will all just go away if I can truly develop the purpose driven life right? Or if I just keep doing more bible studies with my accountability group?

For some of us, the hard reality is that we simply need to move on from some of our old ways and old friends into the fullness of the gospel. The true religion that we know He is calling us to. You won't be popular but quite frankly neither was Jesus among the religious crowd. You may find yourself test the patience of some of your closest friends who would just rather plan their next big vacation and not hear about the sexual exploitation of children or starving kids or children who are alone and without love or hope. That stuff is just too hard and depressing and doesn't fit with the trajectory of my life that God is making so pleasant and easy.

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that everything we do will have an eternal impact in the lives of individual and it matters. Your small choices can make a big difference in the lives of the hurting. The bad news is that you will not be popular, it will not be easy, you will lose friends, people will tire of you constantly beating the drum for the cause of injustice. People will avoid you and criticize you and tell you to lighten up. But, I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to be a louder voice than you have ever been. I want to challenge you to scream for those who have no voice. I want to challenge you to ask God to use you in places and in ways that others don't want to. I want to challenge you to fight against the apathy that plagues our churches and society. I challenge you to be His hands and feet to the least of these. I challenge you to allow your life to be a seed-which falls to the ground and dies and in doing so it produces much fruit. I challenge you to swim against the current of our church culture that seeks to find comfort in a personal gospel and personal salvation and passionately pursue God with a reckless abandon for those that are helpless. I pray that we would have the spirit of a warrior that has counted the cost and said with boldness-Lord I give you my life today-ALL of me-spend me extravagantly on the poor and the oppressed.