Gotcha Day! God's Grace - No Ordinary Love

My blog is going on hold for a while...

So here is a parting video that brings the beginning of our adoption story to a close.  Yes, I said the beginning... I've learned every day is a new beginning and nothing ever comes to a final close.

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Social Justice and God’s Math

God’s ways are not our ways and thank God for that.  We look at things with our limited logic and think there is no way that 1 + 1 = 3 (our US government being the exception).  God looks at impossible equations and says, “watch and see my glory.”

A couple of the best examples of God’s math are found in the Gospels.  Not once, but twice, Jesus feeds thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and fish.  Amazing as this was, many people still did not get it.

God is still doing amazing math today and we still do not get it.  It does not work out logically so we tend to see the problem as too large.  We often do not want to confront a large problem if it appears impossible.  This is especially true if the problem is not our own.  It’s easier to ignore it than to risk looking like Don Quixote fighting a windmill.

For the Love of the Orphan

Warner Bros. new horror movie Orphan proclaims that it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your biological children. Let me tell you about how an orphan changed my life...

Court Date – Again!

Tuesday is our third attempt at adoption court in Ethiopia.  Actually. with the eight hour time difference, our hearing will probably take place sometime while we sleep tomorrow night.

Our adoption process has had it’s ups and downs.  During the home study and paperwork phase everything went smoothly until it came to getting a background check on my time in the Republic of Panama.

Those types of records are difficult to come by when a country has gone through a couple of government overhauls.  We were continually pointed to different agencies and different government departments, both U.S. and Panamanian.

Finally, we got the letter we needed, right when we also figured out that Panama was one of the countries listed where a background check was not needed (because they don’t keep those types of records).

The Shack – William Young

The Shack was not on my reading list.  I’d heard about it, some good and some bad.  Most of the bad had to do either with how God was depicted as an African American woman named Papa or how the Trinity was portrayed.  In any case, I had a pile of books on my wish list already and The Shack was not going to make the cut.

However, my mom read it.  She really liked it and said it was a book that my dad would have enjoyed.  My dad was Baptist preacher who joined the Army during the Vietnam war.  After retiring from the Army he ran a small college for a few years before finishing his career as a Hospice chaplain.  I’m not sure how conservative my dad was when he first became a preacher.  But he would tell me that after spending time in Vietnam, working as a hospital Chaplain, and finally helping people die in peace with Hospice that he probably would not make it in a Baptist church.

In any case, since my mom talked so enthusiastically about the book I figured I should read it.  I needed to figure out for myself if it was a good as the Christian media says or as bad as some conservative Christian leaders warned.

Why We’re Not Emergent

(by two guys that should be) Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck.

I’ve read and posted reviews on a couple of books by what many would call “emergent” church leaders.  You can find reviews for The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren and Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell on this blog.  Dan Kimball is also mentioned in Why We’re Not Emergent and an”emergent” leader and I have also reviewed his book They Like Jesus But Not the Church.

Kevin DeYoung is a pastor of a church while Ted Kluck is a writer but a lay person as opposed to a pastor or theologian.  They have split the book literally in two as they alternate writing each chapter.  This could have been confusing if you did not read the Introduction first but with the strategy understood up front it worked out ok.

I enjoyed the book.  It addressed many of the questions I asked myself after reading McLaren’s and Bell’s book.  I enjoyed these latter books as well but as I mention in my reviews, certain aspects did not sit quite right with me.  DeYoung and Kluck point out many of these same questions so at least I know I’m not alone.

Gifts worth waiting for

I remember the excitement of finding out my wife was pregnant with each of our first four babies.  Each time there was excitement with an undercurrent of fear - “are we ready for this?” God was always good to quickly answer - “yes, or I would not have blessed you with this new child.”

As the husband, I admit, I had the easy part.  Mandy on the other hand had to deal with all the blessings of actually carrying our babies – morning sickness, swelling, hot flashes, a tired back, and of course prenatal vitamins.  I’m sure there were many other wonderful gifts of pregnancy that I am leaving off.

Then there was the waiting.  The first seven months seemed to fly by.  However, the last two seemed to take forever.  We’re ready for our new baby and the kids are ready for their new brother or sister.

As we approached the expected delivery date everyday was a new day wondering – is it going to be today?