Recently my husband said something that made a lot of sense, rare I know. 🙂 Just kidding, honey. Anyway, he was talking to our Sunday school class about our new daughter and he said that sometimes God requires us to risk our safety and security to help others. The American culture says you should seek comfort and security at all costs. You should do what makes you happy at the cost of other people’s happiness and well-being. Christ does not call us to live that way at all. Jesus’ life was not one of safety and security, he risked everything and had nothing, to reach out in love to those around him. He risked his life, his family and his reputation to help those around him who were in a bad place. We should do the same. There have been so many books written recently in Christian circles about this topic, ones like Crazy Love by Francis Chan and others. It’s nice to talk about these ideas or read about them and say, “yes, what a great idea” but then we put the book down and do nothing different with our lives. It’s hard to ignore the culture around us that tells us it’s our right as American’s to be safe and have lots of money, when what Jesus teaches is the exact opposite. Honestly, it’s a war within myself to think about risking stuff for God’s kingdom. I want safety and security as much as anyone, who doesn’t? Don’t we all want peace and tranquility for our lives and our families. Don’t we want to live on a peaceful lake in a big house when we retire? Don’t we want to have the home on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens that is perfectly matched and lovely? I do. But that is not what God is calling us toward. That is heaven’s dream. We will have a lovely house beside a peaceful lake in heaven but for now it’s not going to be that way, or it shouldn’t if we are following Christ. Don’t miss my point, I am not saying we will not have peace and security in this life, we can, but it’s not found in the house we live in or our bank account. It’s found in living in God’s will and finding his peace and security in our souls. Our lives on the outside to others may look like a raging mess, but we can have peace and security on the inside. Jesus did not have a peaceful life, on the outside, he carried his peace within. He had no house, most of his family didn’t like him, he relied on the generosity of others for food and shelter and in the end his friends betrayed him to die alone on a cross. But despite all that, he had peace. Why? because he was following His father’s will.

In our family we are about to give up peace and tranquility and possibly safety to bring home a little girl who needs a home. She will test us and may lash out physically at us when we try to love her. There are many times when I wonder what in the world are we doing and why are we doing it? Those are my dark moments, the ones in the middle of the night. But during the day I know why we are doing this, because God told us to. My prayers for my family are not for peace and tranquility on the outside, because our life will look like a raging mess for a while, but for peace on the inside. I pray for peace in everyone’s souls as we walk through the next few months of transition. Will our lives always look crazy? well, maybe to some people, but I know from having had new babies and adopting that this crazy time won’t last forever. Elizabeth will adjust to our family and she will settle in eventually. In the meantime we will hold onto God’s promise to be with us as we walk through the transition.

What are you chasing? God or the world? What is God calling you to risk? He risked it all for us. I will tell you a secret, if you step out and risk whatever it may be that God is calling you to, He will show up. I have seen this in my life and in this adoption and I know he will show up as we bring our daughter home, I am expecting it. He won’t leave us. He doesn’t call you to something and then leave you to do it on your own. He will be there even when you cannot see Him. Jesus calls us to risky lives because he wants to perfect us to become like himself and nothing does that better than trials. The other reason he calls us to risk is so that others around us will see us and wonder what we are about. We have had more opportunities to tell others about Jesus through our family being so different than we ever had before. We don’t have to go out on the street corner preaching, they come to us to see what we are all about and why we would have this family. What a great platform. Do you look like Jesus, or do you look like the world? What are you risking for God?