Recently, I've caught similar opinions and views circulating once again, and I deeply needed to revisit the Truths I know.
When we said we were becoming foster parents, it was interesting how many people commented, You must go to Brookhills. Granted, it was about the time when the church was making a monumental commitment to loving our city's foster care community.
Yet we responded, No. We don't.
Then, when we said yes to Mattie, our beautiful teenage Chinese daughter for a season, as our first placement, I laughed at the amount of times someone said to me, You're doing this because you've read Radical.
{We love you, Coach David, and I did begin the book finally last year after my initial post, but it was a casualty in the 100-day stomach virus, and I haven't gotten another copy.}
My Friends, we are not missional or radical.
We are deeply loved, incredibly cherished, and desperately pursued.
We didn't consciously think, It is not enough to be a family devoted to raising Christ-followers.
Because that has and always been one of the first and highest callings the Father has placed before us.
BUT...
I remember the darkness of depression.
I recall the imprints that the chains of self-preservation chiseled into my soul.
I know what it was to live without grasping I was passionately loved by my Creator.
And the moment the scales began to peel from my caverned heart...
When the light began to penetrate the corners I thought were buried...
I couldn't help but turn to another and whisper through my tears...
I was made for more.
You were too.
There is One who died to to be strong for you.
The Gospel is not stagnant water.
It is a living, breathing river that must go somewhere.
That is the Truth of the hope you have been given.
There is no divider between this Gospel and a missional or radical lifestyle.
When our eyes are opened to the One who has shattered our night, we are no longer our own.
We no longer want to be our own.
We live utterly and completely for another.
The reality of this moves us outwardly in our marriages, towards our children, to our neighbors, our community, the city, our nation, and the world.
Because every, single one of the these spaces is waiting, perched in longing, to hear the the hope for which they were crafted.
Carrying the presence of Christ into an aching world is not a title or a label...
It is your design. It is your purpose. It is your calling.
Because my Friend, she is not a project or a bullet point on my agenda...
She is a daughter of the King of Kings.
But how will they know unless they are told?
And who better to tell than the beggars who have found the bread of life?
Because of Jesus alone ~
Because of Jesus alone ~
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