Browsing...for children?

Being that we just moved to New Jersey, I was online looking for volunteer opportunities in our area. Somehow I ended up on the Department of Child and Family Services website.

While we're not in a position to adopt at the moment (Chris is in school full-time, I'm working full-time, we're living with my grandmother and there's not much extra space) we are excited about adopting in the future. So...just for kicks I decided to click around some of the adoption links on the website.

It was devastating and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them. There they were, posted online like items to be shopped for. Pictures, names, birthdays and "a brief description".

Almost all of the children were older teenagers, almost all of them had extreme challenges, and many of them had severe physical disabilities and/or medical conditions. And almost all of the descriptions said something along the lines of, "...what he really wants is to find his forever family where he will be loved and cared for."

Aside from the fact that pictures, names and birthdays on the internet seems like a security issue...it is heartbreaking and I have no idea what to do. Will we ever be in a position to adopt an older child with severe medical conditions?

I don't know what to do, I don't know what to suggest, and it makes me so, so sad...

But I do know this. Along with the children on the NJ DCS website, there are countless opportunities for all of us to care for people around us who are hurting.

At World Orphans we are working on a resource to help families and their young children care and advocate for the orphaned and abandoned in their community and around the world.

So I hope to soon be able to point you to a specific resource. But in the meantime it starts with just looking around, asking the Lord to give us eyes to see those who are hurting. The children in foster care, the elderly person who lives alone, the kid at school who no one talks to, the lady at church who always sits by herself.

Matthew 25:40 "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Lord please, help us hold our schedules and agendas loosely so we can be available to show your love to those around us...please.

Forgiveness...

As we seek to engage the orphaned and abandoned around the world who have been sinned against in horrifying ways I cannot really grasp, I long to keep this biblical view before me. For myself and for those who have been hurt that I have the honor of knowing and caring for...

From Ken Sande:

To understand what forgiveness is, we must first see what it is not. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It is an act of the will. Forgiveness involves a series of decisions, the first of which is to call on God to change our hearts. As he gives us grace, we must then decide (with our will) not to think or talk about what someone has done to hurt us. God calls us to make these decisions regardless of our feelings--but these decisions can lead to remarkable changes in our feelings.

Second, forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgetting is a passive process in which a matter fades from memory merely with the passing of time. Forgiving is an active process; it involves a conscious choice and a deliberate course of action. To put it another way, when God says that he "remembers your sins no more" (Isa. 43:25), he is not saying that he cannot remember our sins. Rather, he is promising that he will not remember them. When he forgives us, he chooses not to mention, recount, or think about our sins ever again. Similarly, when we forgive, we must draw on God's grace and consciously decide not to think or talk about what others have done to hurt us. This may require a lot of effort, especially when an offense is still fresh in mind. Fortunately, when we decide to forgive someone and stop dwelling on an offense, painful memories usually begin to fade.

Finally, forgiveness is not excusing. Excusing says, "That's okay," and implies, "What you did wasn't really wrong," or "You couldn't help it." Forgiveness is the opposite of excusing. The very fact that forgiveness is needed and granted indicates that what someone did was wrong and inexcusable. Forgiveness says, "We both know that what you did was wrong and without excuse. But since God has forgiven me, I forgive you." Because forgiveness deals honestly with sin, it brings a freedom that no amount of excusing could ever hope to provide.

Food for Thought

Praise God for his gracious gift of forgiveness to us! The Scripture says "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." (Eph. 4:32, emphasis added) You will probably have an opportunity to extend forgiveness this week. When you do, try to remember what forgiveness is not, and fix your eyes on the full and gracious forgiveness that God has given you in Jesus Christ.

Lovingly challening thoughts...

An email from a friend...

As we spent time in I Corinthians 3 and 4 this morning, we were reminded to build with gold, silver and precious jewels; not hay and straw. It's possible for big events and splashy programs to be nothing but straw. How do we keep Jesus out in front of all we do?

I'd like to hear how you do this in your own lives. How have you managed to keep Jesus at the center instead of on the side?

A blog from a World Orphans colleague:

I wept this morning as I sat in the London airport surrounded by the trappings of this world – the duty free liquor shops, the endless rows of high priced jewelry & chocolate shops, realizing that my 1 much desired latte would have paid 1/2 a month’s rent for people I visited in Muthare slums this week.

I continue to pray that God would let my heart be broken for the things that break His heart, and that He would change me to be more like His son Jesus Christ – a compassionate, self-sacrificing servant, who considers others as more important than himself (philippians 2:1-8), and who loves his neighbor as himself, to be able to say as Paul did that to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

A message from a pastor...

"No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light." Luke 11:33-36

“Be careful!” This is the only imperative in the text. Be careful what you see! Be careful what you regard as bright and attractive and compelling. If it is not Christ, you will be filled with darkness—no matter how bright it seems for a season. Candles seem bright until the sun comes out. Then they are useless and put away.

Christ is the glory we were made to see. His light alone will fill us and give the light of life and meaning to every part of our lives. And when that happens, we ourselves will shine and give off the rays of Christ. “If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Lord, open the eyes of our hearts to see the supreme greatness of your wisdom and power. Make our eyes good. Heal our blindness. Fill us with the all-pervading, all-exposing, all-purifying, all-pleasing light of your presence.