This post is dedicated to my Susan, my beautiful bride.

Susan, I love you! Thank you for being who God made you to be. I cannot imagine my life without you. Because of you, I am better. Happy Valentine's Day.

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Today, I want to encourage anyone reading this to feel free to push back at the celebration of the shallow and fleeting version of ‘love’ that is sold to us by those who do not fully understand the kind of love that was long ago defined by God himself as the ‘mingling of souls.’ 

Celebrate instead the kind of love that lasts, is true, and is free from all selfishness and relational greed. Let’s instead celebrate the kind of love that causes a man and woman to endure through the darkest days of their lives together-not as two individuals struggling to get what they want out of another human being-but as one combined soul that has been knit together by choice and by covenant. The kind of love that-once the euphoric buzz of youthful lust has long faded-chooses, as a matter of will, to persist, to bear with, to commit to, to long after, and to serve the one it has promised itself to. 

It is one thing to plant a garden; it is altogether a different thing to cultivate and care for that garden... Anyone can plant a garden and say, ‘Look at what I’ve done!’ But it’s only the diligent few that can come back years later and find nourishment for themselves-and others-from that same garden. 

Today, fix your thoughts on the work of cultivating, because in the end, that’s where you’ll find the kind of relationship you’re looking for. 

Watch your back, Cupid. We're on to you.

An Open Letter to our Family and Friends on Annelle's Arrival

The Importance of Bonding. An Open Letter to all of our dear family and friends.

Since we have brought Annelle home from Rwanda, we, along with many other adoptive families, have been encouraged to write a letter to our church family, family and friends, to let everyone know what to expect from us as we transition our daughter into our home.  

Please take the time to read the following letter. Thank you.

Dear Family & Friends,

After almost three years on this journey, our sweet daughter is finally home!  We are overjoyed at God's grace and provision for us, but we also recognize this will be a season of great adjustment for our family.  Each of you receiving this letter has supported, loved, and prayed for us throughout this journey.  You each play a very important role in our lives and we are truly blessed because of you.  Because we know you care for our family and new child, we want to share with you some information that we hope will best equip everyone to assist us in laying the strongest and healthiest foundation – emotionally, physically and spiritually for Annelle.

In many ways, Annelle will be like the children who entered our family through birth; we will seek to bring each of them up in the instruction and discipline of the Lord. But there will be a few initial differences from the way we have parented in the past.

We know that God’s design for the family is perfect!  His plan for parents and children is a beautiful and meaningful picture of His love for us. Attachment between a parent and child occurs from the moment of physical birth and over time as a baby has a physical or emotional need and communicates that need, usually through crying or whining, to her parent. The parent then meets the need and soothes the child. This process repeats, thousands of times, between a parent and child over a period of many years to create trust within the child for that parent.  The security provided by parents will, ultimately, give children a trust for and empathy towards others, as well as the ability to build future healthy relationships with others. 

Since we have arrived home, you will notice that we will be tightening our circle a bit, staying close to home more, and in general seem a little less socially available for a while.  Children who come home through adoption have experienced interruptions in this typical attachment-bonding process. The loss of a biological mother and father due to abandonment at an early age can be a major trauma on their little hearts.  Annelle is currently experiencing the loss of familiar and comforting caretakers as well as the sights, smells, and language of Rwanda, not to mention a group of young female orphans like her who have served as her functional sisters in the orphanage where she has lived since she was just 2 weeks old.  Now that she is with us, she will be overwhelmed by all the newness of our world.  To keep her from being too over stimulated, we plan to limit activities for the 1^st month or so.

If you can imagine what it must be like for a 5 ½ year old to be taken from her ‘home’ by people she doesn’t know, look nothing like her, speak a language she doesn’t understand and whom she cannot communicate with, not to mention a world that bears little to no resemblance to what she has known (ex. mirrors and buttons on electronic devices perplex her), and you can begin to understand what is going on in her mind and heart these days. As sentimental as the pictures and posts may be, please be aware that those images are but thin slices of her daily experiences. Consider this excerpt from a book on international adoption of older children on how children perceive their new parents and surroundings:

“You look around you. You are in a remote place in the middle of what seems like nowhere in particular. You have no signs to tell you where you are. Suddenly, you are surrounded by strangers, all of whom are overjoyed to see you. These people smile, laugh, and talk loud and fast, and they act as if you can understand them. They want to touch you; your hair, your face, your shoulders and they want to hug you repeatedly. You notice they have a peculiar odor. They dress differently than anyone you have ever seen. Their language is unintelligible and sound like gibberish. You have no clue how or why you are here. You have no idea how to get back to the life you know. Sometimes some of these people remove your clothing and give you new garments. Some others seem to be sizing you up, looking at your hair and teeth and noting any moles or scars on your body. You are given strange food and invited to play strange games. You are given unfamiliar liquids and encouraged to drink. Everyone continues to laugh and smile and act as though this were a perfect and normal situation. You wonder if you made this happen. You wonder if things will change like this again.”

In addition to adjusting to a new environment, Annelle will also be learning about what it truly means to receive love, and what a family looks like.  To help our little girl truly understand God’s design for a family, we are limiting visitors for the 1^st month or so.  Annelle has had multiple caregivers while in the orphanage and having only one mama and papa will be a foreign concept to her, as will the ideas of ‘family life’ that seem ‘normal’ to those of us who have grown up in families and where certain rules are assumed because of family dynamics.

Our girl’s internal world is also turned upside down right now as she will experience varying degrees of clinical post-traumatic stress. She will struggle with feeling safe and secure and may lack the ability to trust that we will meet her needs. The good news is that we can now, as her parents and forever family, rebuild attachment and help her heal these emotional wounds.  The most effective way for us to form a parent/child bond is by only having us (her parents) hold, snuggle, feed, soothe, care for, and instruct her.  As this repeats between us in the coming year or two, she will be able to learn that parents are safe to trust and to love deeply.  We are, essentially, attempting to recreate the newborn/parent connection.  As time goes on this will change based on her needs, but we want to ensure that she is forming a strong attachment to us, her parents first.

Annelle will also have, what may seem like, a lot of structure, boundaries and close proximity to us when in public. Although it may appear that we are spoiling her at times, we have been advised that it is best that we meet every need quickly and consistently so we can help build trust. Please do not assume that her willingness to hug or touch anyone other than Susan and I (or her brothers) is a sign of affection or acceptance of you. In fact, it is a sign that she doesn’t know how to appropriately create boundaries for interactions with adults. This, obviously, can have very serious consequences later in life if not handled very carefully early on. Also, consider that to Annelle, especially at church and at family gatherings, just about everyone right now is a ‘stranger.’

For some time, here is a guide for how to interact with an older internationally adopted child:

PARENTS & SIBLINGS:  Hugging and kissing; tickling, sitting on lap

EXTENDED FAMILY:  Blowing kisses, sitting close to but not on laps

FRIENDS:  Shaking hands, high fives, sitting nearby

ACQUAINTANCES:  Waving, but no touching

STRANGERS:  Nodding; keeping near parents; never touching

Please know that each of these decisions we have shared with you have been prayerfully and thoughtfully made choices based on many recommendations from multiple case workers & adoptive professionals, personal research, and instruction from trusted adoption mentors.  We will be doing what we believe is best to help our child heal from those interruptions in attachment as effectively as possible.  Why are we telling you all of this?  Because you will actually play an awesome and vital role in helping our baby settle in, heal, and lay a foundation for her future.

Sharing these plans with you is difficult for us because you have openly loved on our other children and we have loved on yours as well, and treasure that connection. Please understand that we want nothing more than to have Annelle hugged, cuddled and cherished by ALL of you. But until she has a firm understanding of family and primary attachments, we need to stick to these guidelines and would be so grateful is you would help us to do so.

Here are a few areas in which you can help us as we go through this transition:

- You each play an important role in our lives, and we do want you to meet the newest member of our family.  But please call before coming over, and don’t be disappointed if we are not allowing visitors or limiting the time of your visit.  This is only in the best interest of our child and teaching her to love and trust us first.

- As shown in the chart earlier, it will help us immensely if you limit what is typically considered normal, physical contact with Annelle. This will (for a while) include things like holding, feeding, instructing, hugging and kissing, etc.  Children from orphanage settings are prone to attach too easily to anyone and everyone – which hinders the important, primary relationship with parents.

- Another area that would help us out greatly is by redirecting Annelle back to us (her ‘mama’ and ‘papa’) to have her physical and emotional needs met.  Orphans often have so many caretakers that they, as a survival mechanism, become overly charming toward all adults. A child struggling to learn to attach may exhibit indiscriminate affection with people outside of their family unit. It may appear harmless and as if they are ‘very friendly’ but this is actually quite dangerous for the child. If she seems in need and we are not close, without picking her up, gently direct her towards us using the words ‘mama’ or ‘papa.’

- Even though it may seem like we will have a lot of limitations when we first arrive home, we’d still appreciate your help and support in every way possible because this will be a tough transition for all of us.  So please don’t hesitate to call and see how you can help.  And of course, please pray for each of us and our boys as we enter this next chapter in our lives.

We know this is a lot of information to take in, so please feel free to ask us any questions at any time. We are learning too, and are grateful that you are seeking with us to help Annelle feel loved, safe, and secure. We are incredibly blessed to have so many loved ones around us. We couldn’t ask for a better extended family & circle of friends for our precious child.

Thank you so much for your love and support over the past 3 years. We love you all!

With Affection,

Jason & Susan
Ethan, Aidan & Annelle

So, why Rwanda?

So much has happened in the last week that I simply don't have the time to get into it all at this time (I will give a more comprehensive update soon!), but there is one topic that I would like to address here that I know is on many people's minds right now and a question that we are asked often:

"Why Rwanda?" 

Of all the places in the world, why would we choose Rwanda, a nation about the same size as the state of Maryland in the middle of war-torn Africa?

Why would we choose a country that will give us not only a daughter of color, but who speaks a language most Americans didn't even know existed (Kinyarwandan)?  

"Have they lost their minds? Do they have any idea what they're in for?!" 

All fair questions-especially the last one...

Well, let me assure you, we do have reasons-many of them-as to why we have chosen Rwanda as the nation that we will adopt from. And as tempting as it is to explain all of those reasons here, for now I will keep it very simple.

So, why are we adopting from Rwanda of all places? Here's our answer:

"Because that's where our daughter is."

Check back soon for more updates and keep the prayers coming! Thank you!

Africa, here we come!

Great news! After a very long and emotion-filled three years (not counting the two or three years it took me to come around to the idea of adopting), we have finally received the news we and so many others have been praying would arrive.

Last Tuesday, we received a very vague email informing us that we had been 'matched with a child' and that we needed to be prepared to leave for Rwanda on October 13th. ...and that's about it.

No name. No picture...

Just the great news that we had been matched and that we needed to begin to prepare to leave for Africa-in just 3 weeks!

After some signing, scanning and sending and them some more signing, scanning and sending, this Tuesday I got a call from Susan around 10 am or so. She was calling from work and from the sound of her voice I could tell something was up. She went on to tell me she had-sitting open in front of her-an email with an attached name and picture of our Rwandan daughter, but wouldn't open it until I got there. This was huge!

It wasn't until around noon that I arrived at the school where my wife is a counselor. As I arrived, we could barely contain the excitement as we begin to one at a time, open the many documents that were attached to the message; documents confirming (in French) that our referral was a healthy female, born in March of 2006 and free of disease.

At last, we arrived to the document entitled "referral photo." Although I offered that she open the long awaited picture, Susan insisted that I be the one to open the attachment. By the way, in the adoption world, this is the moment that is akin to parents seeing an ultrasound of their unborn baby (except for that in this case, the child is five, looking at you and wearing clothes, of course).

I clicked.

In the coming moments, we were overwhelmed to see the beautiful face of our daughter, the face that until this moment we could only try to imagine, looking with what we can only assume is how she looks when she is incredibly nervous, at a camera, wearing a little orange dress with floral patterns on it along with little red sandals with a heart across the toes.

We have a name. We have an age. 
We have seen the face of the girl that is about to become our daughter.

Needless to say, it's been pretty difficult to work or play or think of anything else except for when we can go meet her and bring her home. As it turns out, we are tentatively scheduled to leave for Africa on October 13th for about 21-25 days. As much as we would love to take our boys with us, due to financial and logistical limitations, they will be double-teamed by two sets of loving grandparents along with a crew of other friends and neighbors.

Over the coming days and weeks, please keep our family in your prayers. As excited as we are to share this information, we also know that we aren't out of the woods just yet.

• Pray not only that God would deliver us and the other families we will travel with safely to our destinations, but that the many siblings that will be left behind will have hearts full of love for their incoming brothers and sisters. 

• Pray that the children, many of whom are very fragile, both emotionally and physically, will be kept free of sickness and that the doctors would have the wisdom to address their needs accurately. 

• Pray for the many people who are diligently behind the scenes working on our behalf; lawyers, social workers, nuns, travel agents, etc.

• Pray that the mountain of details that have yet to been completed will take place and that there will be no hitches as we appear in court and take legal custody of our children. 

And finally, as you pray, thank God for His faithfulness and for the reminder that as we are adopting this helpless little child, that we, too, have been adopted into His "forever family" through Christ. If you haven't read Romans 8 in a while (or ever), you should check it out. It's an astonishingly warm passage that reminds us our relational position to God through Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers.

From now until who-knows-when, Susan and I are going to be using this blog as a general pipeline to deliver updates over the coming days, weeks and months. My hope is that this blog will also serve as a day-to-day travel log (as long as we have internet access) for our many good friends, family, and other adoptive families who would like to know what we're up to as we are out of the country and as we begin to make adjustments upon our return. So, be sure to subscribe/bookmark this address to keep up with updates by going to the top left corner of this blog and clicking on 'Subscribe Here,' then on 'Posts' ...and I assure you, there will be many updates that will be heading this way over the next few days/weeks!

Thank you for your many prayers. We love you all. God is faithful!

Our Standard of Living

"Let's just be honest... We're more concerned about our own standard of living rather than helping other people simply live... It's crazy."  

~ Francis Chan

Know an atheist or agnostic? Dont give up on them just yet.

Whenever I hear an atheist or agnostic ranting on the TV, radio, or YouTube post, I often wonder what it would take for them to become a Christian and the sweet irony that would follow. Lucky for us, long before YouTube and men like Richard Dawkins, there was a man named Saul. His story is told in Acts 8-9.

Have you ever noticed that Saul became Paul at the height of his murderous anti-Christian campaign? Literally, as he was on his way to arrest Christians, God chooses Saul, enemy #1 to the Christ followers in Jerusalem, to become his spokesmen to all of those outside of the Jewish world. Do we really appreciate how amazing this is? Check this out...

In Acts 7, a young Stephen is stoned to death with the witnesses laying their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who was there in Acts 8, '"approving of his execution."

In the very first verses of Acts 9, we are told that Saul was "...breathing out  murderous threats against....any who belonged to 'the Way'  whether men or women, so that he may take them as prisoners..."

But, by Acts 9:20-22-just a few verses later, we are told that Saul was now Paul and that he was "preaching in the Synagogues that Jesus is the son of God" and even better, was "proving that Jesus was the Messiah."  Talk about a career change, right? Needless to say, even the Christians couldn't believe it!

The idea the God would choose to intervene in the life of one whose actions show nothing but the greatest contempt for Jesus Christ and his followers should teach us all a very important lesson about who God is, and how He is at work in the hearts of men and women, and our world. 

Just for fun, here is a very brief list of famous atheists/agnostics/followers of other religions who have converted to Christianity:

C.S. Lewis, Mosab Hasson Yousef (Son of Hamas leader), Ramzi Yusef (former Al Qaeda bomber), Peter Hitchens (brother of Christopher Hitchens, author of "God is Not Great"), Lee Strobel ("The Case for Christ/Faith/a Creator"), Kirk Cameron, Josh McDowell ("More Than a Carpenter"), Anthony Flew (world's leading philosophical atheist), Alister McGrath (professor of Theology at Oxford University), Gustvag Mahler (composer), Bob Marley, Ravi Zacharias, Francis Collins (director of the Human Genome Project), William Murray (son of atheist-activist Madeline Murray O'Hair), Anne Rice, and yes-even serial killers David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") and Jeffrey Dahmer.

When a number = great news!

After a very long wait, it would appear that our adoption dossier (i.e. a cinder-block of legal paperwork) has finally received a number-#89! This is GREAT NEWS! Praise to God! For those of you unfamiliar with the international adoption process, this basically means that we are finally out of the locker room, and on the bench. Now, we pray and wait...

Here is a copy of the email we received yesterday:

Dear Jason & Susan,

This email is to inform you that we have received your family’s dossier number as it stands with the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in Rwanda.  Your family’s number is 89.

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this information.  

We have been and continue to pray for your family and for those leading the adoption process in Rwanda.

In Him,

(Name Withheld)

America World Adoption

American Priorities...

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press recently released an interesting report. Entitled Public's Priorities for 2010: Economy, Jobs, Terrorism, it highlights the changing priorities of the American public.

What is interesting to me in this study is how nearly all of the issues on people's minds are so strongly correlated to the other issues (ex. Education > Jobs > Crime > Helping the poor...) yet graphs such as this encourage us to look at them as if they are all somehow disconnected from one another. I look forward to the day when Americans, especially Christians, accept and understand the inter-relatedness that the issues that concern us have to other issues that may not.

The great thing about the Christian faith is its understanding that all of life's civil 'domains' (education, government, economics, agriculture, etc.) are an intricate inter-related web, not single strands hanging from separate branches and that what happens in one will eventually lead to changes in another.

We can see this in God's instructions to Israel in the Old Testament for how to conduct themselves. Here are just a few examples from Leviticus 19, each of which speaks to healthy civil conduct:

- 'Each of you must respect his mother and father...'

- 'Observe the Sabbath...'

- ''When you reap the harvest, do not reap to the edges...leave them for the poor...''

- 'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him...'

- 'Do not steal...'

- 'Do not deceive one another...'

-  'Do  not pervert justice; do not show...favoritism to the great...'

- 'Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly...'

-  'Do not use dishonest standards...'

When we look at each of the issues shown on the above graph and place them in the context of the civil life of Israel in light of Scripture, we can see that God had careful measures in place to ensure vitality of their economy, the defense of their nation, the education of their children, provision for the elderly, how to deal with immigrants, etc., all of which hinged primarily on their understanding of who they were in relation to a holy God.

And as with ancient Israel, it's only when we have gone our own way that we, as humans, have had to come up with stop-gap measures to slow the hemorrhaging of our society. And in the words of Dr. Phil, "How's that workin' for us?"  Not so well, I'm afraid.

Why Ignorance Will Eventually Cost us

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."

~Thomas Jefferson

Are all sins equal?

If you were raised at all like I was, my Sunday School teachers were always quick to remind me that 'all sin was sin' and that all sins were 'equal.' Even as a 10 year old I knew this wasn't quite right... After all, which would you prefer: that I call you a bad name or shoot you in the heart? (see how sinful my heart is?!)

Now, to clarify, while all sins are offensive to a Holy God and it is our sin (as a condition) that separates us from Him, the Bible clearly supports the idea that some individual sins are, in fact, greater than others.

Yet another casualty of learning Doctrine by flannel-graph.

According to world renown theologian J.I. Packer, "Scripture shows that in God's estimate some sins are worse and bring greater guilt than others, and that some sins do us more damage. Moses rates the golden calf debacle a great sin (Ex. 32:30). Ezekiel in his horrific allegory says that after Oholah (Samaria) had ruined herself by unfaithfulness to God, Oholibah (Jerusalem) "became more corrupt … in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister" (Ezek. 23:11, ESV). John distinguishes sins that do and do not inevitably lead to death ..."

Exodus 32:30

 ³⁰The next day Moses said to the people,"You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."

Ezekiel 23 (excerpts)

"Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors ⁶clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men...She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. ⁸She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. ⁹Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ¹⁰ These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.... ¹¹"Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister...But she carried her whoring further...."

Kids Pushing Parents?

Hello, everyone! Long time, no blog...sorry about that!

Having worked with kids/teens/youth for the last 15+ years and now raising our own, Susan and I have often discussed our culture's disposition to push our children in unhealthy ways under the guise of 'giving them opportunities we never had,' and how quickly things have shifted in our culture from letting kids be kids into making them into mini-versions of grown ups. Following is an article released from the Psychology Today website on this recent cultural phenomenon, with a particular focus on the recent travels of 16 year old Abby Sunderland and her desire to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world.

This article in interesting in that it hints at the next phase that we now see occurring in this process-and it has experts alarmed; the shift from parents pushing their kids into too much/too soon, to what is happening more recently-kids pushing their parents to assist them as they set out to achieve their own dreams of competitive success and fame. This idea aligns perfectly with numerous other studies that now report that kids no longer want to be nurses, doctors, teachers, firemen and lawyers as they have in previous generations, but instead, just want to 'be famous.' Sadly, just recently, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, I heard a young girl from a good home (age: 5) tell her mom that she wanted to 'be skinny' when she grew up. I don't' know about you, but that gave me the chills when I heard it.

Kids want fame, not education: [http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/02/19/fame.junkies/index.html]

Wherever you land within this conversation, I want to encourage you to take a few moments to read the following article. As parents, teachers, school administrators, pastors and heck-adults, we all have a share in serving as the guardians of the emerging generation-a generation that will have more major national/international conundrums to navigate, problems to solve, and issues to address than perhaps any that has preceded it. And somehow, I don't think wanting to be famous when they grow up is going to set the trajectory for their success in a world that has gone mad. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Here you go: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/marriage-and-parenting-in-todays-culture/201006/abby-sunderland-sails-around-the-world-superkid

Have a great week.    

Are we too easily pleased?

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

(The Weight of Glory, 26)" ~ C.S.Lewis

Where is God in Haiti?

This is my response to a Christian friend of mine who posted on her Facebook page, "Why did this happen?" as her response to the earthquake in Haiti. It's not an exhaustive explanation to be sure, but I hope it helps you sort through this, especially if you have wondered 'Why' yourself...

Here's my response:

It all began in Genesis 3. When mankind fell, so did all of creation...a creation that 'groans' until things will be restored. We can be assured of one thing, though, and that is that God will use this to reveal His glory.

The very fact that we even ask 'Why?' actually serves as evidence that inherently, we KNOW that things like this aren't 'right.' That earthquakes aren't SUPPOSED to happen and that they are a wrong imposed on us...this is, in kind of a reverse way, proof that there is a 'Supreme Good,' which is the essence of who God is and on the flip side, a 'Supreme Evil' which is bent on destroying humanity-and the is the adversary-our Enemy.

When things such as this happen, and within hours, PLANE LOADS of Christians leave their families to go help and missionaries refuse to leave the chaos when they have safe havens back in the US and elsewhere, God is glorified and so is the Church.

I'm pretty sure that when your kids got vaccinated for polio, they probably looked at you as if you had betrayed them and that the Doctor was a tool of evil-they couldn't have possibly understood that you had their best interests in mind...they wouldn't even have understood if you had told them, for that matter. I believe it is like this with us and God. ...

Things are not right-but the Bible HAS told us why, and to go a step beyond my analogy, has given His people marching orders in how we are to respond. He has also told us it's ok to cry out "WHY?" (...just look at Psalms, Lamentations, Jeremiah, or the writings of Paul to see that...pain and questioning God is a common theme in the Bible).

What matters is our response-again-it's a fallen situation that is in need of redemption. The short term redemption is Christians responding rightly. The long term redemption will be the thousands of unknown stories that will one day revealed and those that will share in Christ's glory as a RESULT of this tragedy, some of which I have already seen on the news as miraculous stories have begun to emerge.

I know this doesn't make it easy or take away the temporary pain of this, but it does help us to better understand God's panoramic view vs. our limited, myopic vision.

Added: shortly after I posted this, I saw this as a featured story on MSN's homepage: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34866253/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/?GT1=43001

The Paradox of So-Called "Security"

"Come, follow me," Jesus said...at once, they left their nets and followed Him."

Matthew 4:19-20

When we choose to follow Christ wherever He leads us, we are often tempted to believe that we will have chosen to leave a life of security for a life of insecurity, when in fact, we will have chosen to leave a life of insecurity for one of security. This is a paradox that few will truly understand.

Only those who have chosen to leave their nets will truly have stability in both this life and the next. Those who stay in the boat will tell themselves, "We are better off here!" When in fact, they exist in a rickety, accident prone vessel that at any moment, can become crushed under the weight of the sea and is constantly tossed by the merciless winds that are never calm for too long.

Profile of a Hero: FRED

This morning as I was getting ready for work, enjoying a cup of warm pumpkin spice flavored coffee, a local news station ran yet another story of some poor woman who had somehow managed to run her car off of the road and into a retention pond. Those darn retention ponds...

Lucky for her, there was Fred.

Fred, a 36 year old father, was driving by at just the right moment when he noticed her car almost fully submerged, with nothing but her taillights poking out of the chilly evening water. According to Fred's wife, he stopped the car, and without saying a word, jumped out, took off his shoes and bolted towards the pond, diving in to rescue a woman he didn't even know. Upon entering the water, Fred was unable to open the door to the submerged car or break a window successfully, at which time, another observer offered him a rock, and according to him, after asking for 'God to help' him break the window, shattered it on the first strike, saving the woman inside.

Don't you just love a happy ending?

As I was watching the local news team interview their hero, Fred, I couldn't help but notice a detail in this story that is quite common in stories like this-we're not really that interested in the victim.

Not that the victim isn't important (after all, it's kind of difficult to have heroes without victims, isn't it?), it's just that when we compare the situation of the victim to the risk taken by the hero, all of a sudden, the victim's story just usually isn't that interesting.

What is interesting, however, is your everyday run-of-the-mill guy who just two minutes earlier was listening to talk radio and taking his daughter to a doctor's appointment, suddenly springs into action, risking it all to save a person he doesn't even know, or for that matter, would even like if he did. After all, what's in it for Fred? Nothing, of course. His own wife, who witnessed the entire incident, told reporters that she kept thinking, "what are you doing?!?"  Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

 In Ephesians, the apostle Paul puts it this way:  

"As for you, you were dead...in your sins...but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions." ESV

In other words, we were dead in the water, drowning in the retention pond of our own sins, when Jesus, at his own peril, ran to us, broke into our lives, grabbed us by the hand and pulled us to the safety of the shore. So often, I think we are tempted to think this story we find ourselves in is all about us, as if we were the main characters. But we're not, are we? Jesus is our Fred, and the story is not about us-it's all about Him.

It was Jesus who left the safety of the heavens to put on human skin, get tired, catch colds, and slam His thumb with a carpenter's hammer.  It's He who walked mile after dusty mile, reminding his own people that He was the one they had been looking for, only to have them try to throw him off a cliff. It was He who allowed those He had lovingly created from the dust of the earth try him in a court of law-unjustly-and eventually murder him in the same fashion as the creepiest, scummiest, nastiest criminals of the day-on a splintery wooden Roman cross. It was all for us, so that one day we could be with Him forever.  All for us.

"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

He died so that we could live. This is the profile of a hero.

Happy Halloween, er...All Saints Day...er, Reformation Day?

As a Pastor-Dad, I am often asked if I "celebrate" Halloween with my boys. A great question, too...so, here's my answer: "yes-ish." And no, I won't divulge the whole answer, but I will leave you with this hint: It's about Susan and I, as Christian parents, working to do the redemptive work of Christ while on this earth at this specific time. In the same way that everything in this fallen world (eating, drinking, entertainment choices, reading, internet usage, etc.) is in dire need of redemption, so are holidays...and yes, this includes Christmas and Easter, too...

Here's the rub: To swing the pendulum too far in one way (ex. locking your kids inside on Halloween and forcing them to sing Chris Tomlin songs) could lead to a kind of legalism, while swinging it too far in the other direction (ex. hanging a dead 'body' in your tree and scaring the snot out of little neighborhood kids)  could lead to license. So, how then are we to live?

For me, I Corinthians 10:15-33 has been a light that shines Truth into this question...Truth that tells me this: it's not actually about Halloween, is it? When you get a chance, take a few moments to read this passage carefully-great stuff and applicable here.

If you have kids, this week is a great time to teach them some very important truths. Truths about the redemption of a dark pagan holiday into a Christian one by our forefathers in the faith (i.e. All Saints Day), or about a *little* thing called The Reformation (10/31 = Reformation Day. Would America even be here today without it?) and for those of you who are picking out a last minute costume today with your kids, may I make a suggestion? How about Martin Luther?! It's a great conversation starter, I promise.  Ok...maybe that is a bit much. Have a safe weekend...

...and a Happy Reformation Day!

Taking Genesis 28 Seriously at the (Pro?)Creation Museum

Last week, for their Fall Break, I surprised my two sons (5 & 9) with an all-day trip to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. When I first heard about the museum, I was a little reluctant to check it out (given how weird we Christians can get with this particular issue), but after much prodding from many of my friends and family who had enjoyed their visit, I decided to take the plunge. Overall, it was not a bad experience, although my kids (especially my 9 year old) were a little stunned by the exhibit where Adam & Eve were depicted being, uh...fruitful...hey, it's in the Bible, right?  It's a good thing I had that 'talk' with Ethan already...

Here is an actual picture:

And another:

So, what do YOU think?

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

"Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently...on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a savior of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade them, God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course...manages to make man the star of the show..."

~ A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)           

Christianity...useless?

  I get so weary of hearing this message...how about you? The message that pins all of humanity's social ills on faith and Christianity and claims that we would all be "better off" without God. Really? Let's think about the reality of this statement. Aside from the fact that these individuals are even ALLOWED to make that statement because of the Constitution and its roots in the Judeo-Christian understanding of and individual's right to free expression, let's consider some other facts...

Christians, when functioning properly, within the context of the Church, have always has been the moral consciousness of American life, informing the policy of our nation and steering the ethics of our dealings, both within our nation’s borders and beyond. While the involvement of [true] Christians in government is another issue that won’t be explored in this post, their voice is one that must not be silenced and is in fact, incredibly valuable. 

Let’s consider the effects of the Church acting on the moral consciousness in our nation’s history. Consider the following facts: 

-The Western legal system, with its limitations of governmental powers and Constitutionalism owes it origins to religious, Judeo-Christian ideals and Biblical principles.

-The Western tradition of the sanctity of human life owes its origins to the concept of being the "image-bearers" of God himself. (Gen. 1:26).

-The concept of "adoption" is a concept granted to us by the religious tradition (Rom 9:3-5).

-The abolishment of Slavery and the advent of the Civil Rights movement were spurred on by pastors and religious leaders, both black and white, most notably, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and before that, William Wilberforce in England. This concept was set forth in the New Testament when Paul told Philemon to treat his slave, Onesimus, as his brother.

-The Gladiatorial games of the Roman Empire were boycotted by early Christians, due to their brutality and inhumane treatment of prisoners.Eventually, the entire civilized world's (Rome) view changed as a result of the influence of the Christian worldview on the treatment of people.

-Women’s rights, contrary to public perception, go back to the respectful treatment of women in both the Old and New Testaments. The 10 commandments require children obey both father and mother; Deborah was a prophetess and judge in early Israel; Jesus treated women much differently than the customs of the times would have dictated; Paul commended women such as Priscilla in their contending for the faith.

The list goes on: concepts of labor and vocation, work and fair compensation, property rights and free trade, public education and the educational footings of the American university system, modern medicine and more all owe the Bible and the Christian faith for their underpinnings.

This, of course, is not an exhaustive list of all that Christianity has done for our nation, but it is imperative that we clearly grasp the fact that because of Christian ideals, we are much better off than we would be without them-and you won't have to go too far, either, to find compelling evidence of this...


-Communism-failed.
-Fascism-failed.
-The Third Reich-failed.
-Other "Police States"

Fact is, the further a nation [or movement] moves away from Biblical principles for governance and conduct, the higher the propensity for the oppression of peoples, increase of poverty, the abuse of power, etc.

Perhaps a a better question would be this: where would we be WITHOUT the Christian faith? It's scary to think.

Messed up by Christ

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."  ~ II Corinthians 5:16-18

As so many know, once Jesus enters your life, there's no going back, is there? So many lives have been (and are being) radically transformed by the message of Jesus Christ. Simply put, when you allow Christ into your heart, the process of regeneration and renewal begins through the work of the Holy Spirit that now lives in you. Through Christ and the work done on the cross, you become a 'new creature' with the old, sinful part of you 'dying' and the new 'you' emerging. As a caterpillar emerging from the dark dormancy of a cocoon, we emerge better than before, with new, more amazing capabilities, such as the capability to live lives of reconciliation, forgiveness and restoration.

Amazing, isn't it?

Just the other day, I read this incredible letter by a church member to her pastor. At first, as I was reading it, I wasn't real sure where it was going as it seemed very negative. But after continued reading, it made perfect sense. Here is a woman who allowed Christ into her life, and as a result, Christ messed her up. Maybe you can relate? I can.

Here it is. Enjoy...