We Adopt

Here's a tidbit about our family that I believe ties in with the thought process of standing against a society gone wrong: we adopt. On July 24th 2007 we brought a nine-month-old orphan boy home from Guatemala after having raised two daughters into their teenage years. My wife and I were in our 40s and "felt the call of God" to give a home to a little boy who did not have one. On one hand we have struggled to understand the complexities of emotion and circumstance that cause a mother to choose to relinquish custody of her flesh and blood, to cut off the possibility of ever having a relationship with her child. On the other hand, our son Eliot every day causes us to be grateful that his mother did so.

Adoption is an indicator of both brokenness and grace. The fact that there are circumstances in our world that necessitate adoptions portrays the tragic consequences of the failure of mankind to live under the authority of God, the Creator of all things. The fact that there are people ready and willing to welcome broken, bereft or unwanted children into their homes is a signal that God's grace is still at work. With all that is wrong in every society of humanity throughout the world, thank God this is still true!

We thought we were done. But we recently realized that adoption had become such a part of us that God was making room for more. We're going through the adventure of adoption again, this time a child with special needs from Hong Kong. Our reasons are different this time (more about that later), but God is writing the story of this adoption just as clearly as He wrote Eliot's story. We wouldn't have it any other way. We have said to God, as Moses did thousands of years ago, "If Your presence will not go with us, do not send us up from here," (Ex 33:15) and He has made us keenly aware of His presence as we have sought His direction through His word, books, and the counsel of others. We have never encountered a challenge in our lives that God has not ordained and used for our good and His glory. We are certain that will be true of this as well.

I don't know if anyone will ever read this blog. I hope someone does. I hope that my words will have an impact on someone's life. But, to the point of this post, I know that at the very least God is using adoption in the life of my family to make each of us, in our own way, more dependent on Him - like a little child. That can only be a good thing, for "Who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God?" (Psalm 18:31)

whycrass?

I've been thinking about starting a blog for some time now. When I was a young man (a VERY young man - barely so) I had an ambition to be a reconizable musical figure. This ambition became a minor reality, and the musical group I "created" enjoyed a very miniscule amount of success for a few years. This monker "crass" was the name I employed for my essentially fictitious music publishing and record company, "crass music/crass records". It was an acronym which stood for "christians rebelling against a sick society". I have used this acronym in many contexts since, and it seemed applicable to this blog which I have finally taken the first steps to present to whoever might find it. After living with the society my acronym comments on for 46 years, I am more convinced today than ever that it is so. This does not in any way minimize the existence of the positive, or the moments of grace that we all experience. But the presence of sadness and suffering and the intrusion of death and misery into what was originally intended to be paradise has convinced me that this "sick"-ness of society is pervasive. And we as members of this society are all responsible for it. But that "sick"-ness is not all I hope to write about in this blog. It is much more about the previously mentioned intrusion of grace that charms my soul and inspires my heart. You will find out quickly that I am a man deeply in love with the word of God, and that there is much that God has said and is still saying about how one "rebels" against the pervasive sickness of society. The rebellion of Christianity against a society gone awry is a rebellion of truth, faith, hope and love. Truth, because Jesus said He IS the truth. Faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God. Hope because the cross of Christ has birthed hope in all of our hearts. And Love, because God IS Love.