I recently read a post by another blogger here. It was about the book by David Platt called Radical. I have not yet read the book, although I would like to. Judging from this blog post I read, the premise of the book is about doing radical things for Christ, which, obviously, I am supportive of. What this blogger wrote was about how it is good to do radical things for Christ but sometimes we get carried away with ourselves and do things for Christ just because they seem radical and not because we are called to do that specific thing.

This blogger suggested that we sometimes get addicted to the excitement and feeling of doing something radical, once we have done it, that we want to recreate that feeling in our everyday life all the time. I can agree with that statement. It is exciting doing something for Christ that is out of the proverbial box. I like the excitement of adoption or doing some big thing for Christ. And I confess it is easy to get sucked into the excitement and just want to do something big for Christ because you assume that is what He wants for everyone all the time. But what we fail to realize is that God works with us through the big things in our lives and also the mundane, everyday stuff. We cannot do big things all the time, we will burn out. Glenn and I have been having this conversation a lot lately of slowing down our lives and not doing “big” things all the time, as it feels like we have been doing recently. After we finish this adoption we are currently pursuing, our plan is to slow down for a while. We both know we need time for our family to gel together. It takes about two years or more for a family made through adoption to come together in a real way. We understand we need time for our family to adjust and as one blogger put it we need time “for the mobile of our family to find balance again after adding another piece”. That is so true.

But doesn’t God want us as Christians to do as many “big” things as we can for Christ while we have the short time here on earth? No, not necessarily. Glenn and I had a huge learning experience in this area early in our lives together. Glenn had always planned on being a missionary ever since he was young. He went to college and majored in Spanish because he felt called to missions in Mexico. When I met him I had some idea of where I would be after college and that included having a godly husband and a kid or two. So, I naturally fell in line with Glenn’s calling to be a missionary. We made our plans and attended Bible school after college. Then we bought a car that would be suitable in Mexico and got pregnant with our first child so I could have him before we went. (All you mothers out there can appreciate not wanting to birth your first child in a foreign country if you can help it). We made all these plans but neglected to really ask God if it was HIS plan for our lives at that time. We assumed God would want us to be missionaries if we were willing, why wouldn’t he? We talked with our church leadership about our plans and they said they would pray with us about it. So, we waited and ultimately they said they didn’t feel it was God’s will for us at that time. That was hard to hear! But we humbled ourselves and prayed about it and God showed us that He indeed did not want us to move to Mexico at that time. God had other plans that we would need to wait on. So, we waited and now so many different things have happened the “biggest” of which is our two adoptions. We would not have Joshua or be getting our Elizabeth if we had pushed through with what we assumed God wanted. He had a different sort of mission work for us, the mission work of adoption. Might we go to a foreign mission field sometime in our lives? Maybe, I don’t know, only God does, but for now I am so glad we waited on His direction in our lives.

It has been said, “life is what happens while you are busy planning other things”. That is too true. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our tomorrows and “big” things that we are going to do for God that we miss the little things He has planned today. I am preaching to myself big time on this one. I live for the “big” things of life, but I need to slow down and see what God would have me do today. He might just want me to fold laundry and play with my kids and that is more important to Him for me, at this moment, than planning some “big” thing for Him.