Category: Different Thoughts

Posted in Adoption Journey, Different Moments, Different Thoughts

and so…

Posted on by Wick

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an official “update”.  We have so many friends and family who have given, and are joining us in prayer – I felt like I wanted to post “something”.  So here it is:  we are still waiting.

It hasn’t always been easy, and there are still moments where it’s not.  But we’ve been reminded through it all – sometimes it’s okay to wait.  Just like the blog I posted earlier this week, sometimes it’s good for us to remember that in the midst of ugly suffering – there is something beautiful and precious happening.  We can hope and pray that something along those lines is happening here.

8668379016_09631c718a_hWhether it’s the fact that our daughter is having a few more days with her birth family; or simply that God knows I haven’t quite released my desire to “do it on my own strength” yet….or possibly even just because it just hasn’t happened yet.  We continue to receive a peace about where we are at this point.  Waiting.  Trusting.  Breathing slowly.  Knowing that God’s activity is not contained only in the act of bringing home our daughter….these moments are formative, prayer-inducing, and Spirit-relying.  After all, “patience” is just one bit of the Fruit of the Spirit….right?

Pratically – we’re at the top of the list still.  We’ve had more than one occasion where we received the offer of a referral that almost met the requirements we’ve been approved for.  In each case, there has been a difficult moment of prayer, and incredible experiences of desperation before a God who we want to love – and who Loves these children.  It’s not easy to release a child/children who really needs a family, but we know there are several incredible families on the list after ours – many who are better set-up or shaped to receive these.

So for now, we continue to pray.  We check our e-mail about once an hour (at least).  We pray some more.  We try to figure out how to raise a few more bucks (only about $10,000 left to go, if you wanna give just click here!).  We talk about what God is doing, and look forward to how our family will grow….in so many ways.

And not forget that we have 3 daughters at home who are being transformed by being a part of our family as well.  Their little hearts are bursting with Love, even in the moments it may not be 100% transparent.  They get so excited to realize that by living from love – they are changing the world.  The WORLD.  They pray for Phoebe, and can’t wait to meet her.

Someday soon, we will move forward.  Until then..we continue to grow and be changed….

Posted in Different Scriptures, Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

are you part of a faith web?

Posted on by Wick

When I was almost 11, because of brokenness in our world, we ended up going from part of a large, faith-centered extended family….to becoming an island.  A mother and her 5 children, disconnected from all of the aunts, uncles, and grandparents we’d grown up connected to.  My mom did a great job handling so much of it, and one of the most important ways she did that, was by not trying to do it all herself.

One of the biggest things I remember about growing up from pre-teen to college student, were how many “surrogate” family members we had.  I believe it was part of God’s redemptive plan, to surround us with other adults and older, faithful witnesses who became aunts, uncles, and grandparents to us in the faith.  People who shared stories with us, celebrated life’s big moments, and simply allowed us to see how they were following God from day to day.  Those people spoke Hope into our lives, and prayed for us regularly.spider web in sunlight

The authors of many different books for parents of children and of teenagers, have written about the research done on what sort of things lead to a life-long faith.  It’s not an incredible youth group, huge concerts, or an amazing preacher.   It’s not buying them a great study Bible, or after-school Jesus clubs, or even having really really Jesus-like friends.  It’s having several close relationships with older, God-seeking adults.

It’s a beautiful thing if those adults can be actual family members.  To be able to sit in the same pew as grandma and grandpa, and sing songs together.  To clean up streets, or serve the homeless with their aunts.  To climb on their uncles lap during the message, and give a picture they colored in Sunday School.  To travel somewhere with those they share life with, and serve the “Least of These” who live there.  To have lunch together, talking about the stories of faith – including the current stories God is writing through their life as a family.

But – to encourage you no matter your family situation…the blood of Jesus is more powerfully connective than any other.  As sons and daughters of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), we are connected to a larger web of family than we’ll ever realize in this life.  No matter what your age or life situation, you can (and are called to!) reach out to the children of your congregation and connect.  This is also a great regular reminder of accountability – younger people are looking up to you!   If you’re a parent, you can (and are called to!) reach out to other generations of those seeking God, and connect your children in meaningful relationships.

It may even be worth taking out a sheet of paper, drawing a spider web, and putting the names of all the people your children are in meaningful relationships with who are living out the faith you’re wanting to pass on to them.  Are there many names, besides yours and their Sunday School teachers?  Is it a diverse group of names, coming from different generations, and different walks of life?  Doing this may make you want to reach out purposefully, and invite someone to be a more active part of your child’s faith web.  Heck, you may even want to start with sending them a link to this blog-post…I’m okay being an ice-breaker for such an important conversation/invitation. 🙂

I also just realized this post could be a bit of a “Debbie-Downer” to any family members who are long-distance from relatives they’d love to be in their “faith-web”.  I want to remind you that distance does not negate such a thing happening.  Writing letters, chatting online, and being sure that when you are near – you share in experiences that point to Jesus.  These, and so many more ways exist to help overcome any physical distance in a faith web connecting life-long relationships in meaningful and important ways.

May God be with us, as we humbly accept His calling for us to pass all of this on to the generations following us…(Deuteronomy 6)

Posted in Different Learning, Different Thoughts

re: what God can do

Posted on by Wick

Kids ask amazingly complex questions that we often given very simple answers for, simply because of what their brains can comprehend.  That sounds like I’m talking about my children as if they can’t understand as much as me – when really, I hardly understand a sliver about the totality of God either.  Imagine a road trip from San Fransisco to Augusta, Maine.  Whether you’re just leaving town (my kids), or you’re about 10 miles out of town (me), it’s still quite a distance to Augusta.   That’s how I feel about our respective understandings of God.  As we get older, we can simply understand larger words.  It’s amazing to me that a thousand years ago, people were writing and posing such wonderfully complex questions, and many of them are approached by new people today as if they’ve never been thought of.

Peter Damian did a lot of thinking/writing in the realm of forgiveness. Putting it in the realm of virginity (since most sins can be seen as a loss of “innocence” in whatever area they are in), when one is forgiven, can God go back in time and make something that has happened as if it never happened?

The response is a bit humorous.

There was a large focus in their day (and still today, even if we don’t talk about it or give name to it) on this aspect of “being” (ousia). Damian believed that God could do anything that was good (in God’s nature), not to be limited by any aspect of ousia (space/time/matter/etc.). That the goodness of God stands outside of being….not bound by it and whatever that all means.

But because “ousia” is something that is brought into existence by God, that means for something to have “being” it must be something good, for that is the nature of God. So if something has previously happened that is not good (i.e. “evil”), that thing that has happened has a sort of “non-being”, since it obviously did not come from God, source of all ousia. It doesn’t actually have “ousia”. Damian’s initial response, therefore, would be something like “why would God have to undo something that isn’t?”.

But Damian would eventually concede in a way that, although focusing on God’s superhero omnipotence, still offers us something helpful in our thinking of God. He would say that because God could have stopped Rome from becoming Rome (before it happened), God still can today. This follows the logic of God being not bound by the realms of time. He talks a bit about the most faithful way of speaking about God is ALWAYS in the present tense. (Gotta love that. If we take away nothing else, to remind ourselves to speak of God always in present tense. Not so much “could do”, or “will do”, but “is doing”. 🙂 ) So even though something evil that has happened lacks “ousia”, and doesn’t actually “exist” as most things do, God can go back and alter that future just as much as He could have stopped it before it happened.
But when my daughter asks me,”Daddy, what is God’s forgiveness like?”, I can simply answer “It’s as if you’ve never done it.”  Someday we’ll get all ontological…but maybe we shouldn’t. 🙂