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What’s more important than Jesus?   The obvious answer here is: Nothing.  Right?

But shortly after the resurrection, we read a story that might make us think a bit more about our response.  The women had told the disciples about finding the empty tomb, and the words of the angel.  But when a few of the men arrived at the tomb, there was nothing.  No angel.  No bright lights.  Nothing.  They were confused, disappointed, and a bit saddened.

As they walked to the nearby town of Emmaus, they were joined by another man.  “Their eyes were kept from recognizing..” that it was Jesus.  He knew they were down, and yet the number one priority for Jesus in that moment was NOT to reveal His presence was with them.  There was something more important than Jesus simply walking along the road with them.  But what?

He asks them why they’re down, and they can’t believe this man’s question.  Has he been under a rock for the past week?  Surely everyone would know what was going on.  He responds to them by explaining that it was necessary for the “Messiah to suffer these things and then enter into his glory…

…then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” – Luke 24:27

Jesus knew that he could change their sadness into celebration in an instant, simply be revealing who he was.  But that wasn’t the top priority.  He wasn’t walking along-side them simply that they would know he was walking along-side them.  His number one priority was to reveal not only Himself, but the purposes God was actively moving to accomplish – and HAD BEEN moving to accomplish throughout all of history!  Jesus wasn’t simply an idea God finally came up with about 2,000 years ago.  The purposes and activity we see being fulfilled in Christ are the same that God is moving toward way before then – and continues to be moving toward and through even today!

Later, when they break bread together, “their eyes were opened”.  As soon as they recognized him, he vanished from their sight.

In a similar vein, Jesus hasn’t offered us his presence, simply for us to cuddle up to or high-five him – pumped and doing chest-bumps that he’s defeated death and now we can walk together into the sunset of a future eternity of sunshine.  There is an active purpose and reason God has been at work fulfilling since the earliest days of His covenant with Abraham, Moses, and the people of Israel.

And so, as we respond to God’s invitation to join His redeeming/healing/restoring/loving work among humanity and for all of creation…may we never think that Jesus “just wanted to take a walk with us”….;)

We’d been dating for quite a while, and the topic of marriage had come up. She looked at me with tears in her eyes, not sure how to say it. “What if I feel God calling us to move to Africa?” I assured her, if God was calling us, we’d follow that call together. Here we stand, in our 10^th year of marriage, and we believe God is issuing a call.

But it is not a call for us to go to Africa.

We believe it is a call for us to make room in our home and family for Africa. More specifically, we believe God is moving us toward an international adoption. To offer our home and family to a child who would not otherwise know they are loved and precious in the sight of God. Not simply to offer them the last name “Anderson”, but to offer them and our own children an identity much larger and foundational – child of God.

Ever since getting married, and especially after having children, we’ve prayed about how to “orient” our family around something larger than ourselves. To craft a story we can tell by living it out with our children and grandchildren – one that joins in the story God has been telling for millenia. A story of outward-going love. Love that goes beyond what is expected. Love that is invitational. Love that is striving to beat in rhythm with the very heart of God.

I don’t have to quote scripture here, but just in case you’re unfamiliar with a few of the many verses that reveal the Spirit’s time signature: James 1:27, Romans 8:15, Matthew 19:14, Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 58:10, and plenty more where that came from. Of course, there are many different ways God desires His people to move and accomplish His healing and “new creation” work in the cosmos. Every family and home must discover what rhythms God is inviting them to move in – this is one that has surfaced throughout our journey of orienting our family around Christ.

As we move forward, there are many unknowns. How will we possibly afford this? (one dollar at a time) How long will this take? (one to several years) Where will our daughter/son come from? (possibly Central Africa, possibly somewhere we’ve not yet considered) How can others get involved? (prayer, fasting, donations as we begin our fund-raising efforts)

Our girls are very excited about the possibility that we may fill the empty seat in our mini-van with another sister. We’ve invited them to be praying with mommy and daddy now, toward whatever God may have in store for us. Our plan is to continue giving you updates, and we will add an “Adoption Journey” tab to www.differentparent.com so that you can follow along and pray with us.

Thank you for joining us in prayer, and for your friendship and support as we move forward – wanting to be used by God. As I’ve said, there are many unknowns at this stage – which makes us depend quite a bit on practicing dependence on God. That’s probably a good place to be. 🙂

It is not uncommon to ask a pastor where they have lived in the past 10 years, and have 2 or more states listed off.  There are as many reasons for this occurrence as there are pastors.  One reason may be wanting to follow Christ in some understanding of “the son of man has nowhere to rest his head” (Matt 8:20).  Pastors follow the call of God to stay move-able.  Some may even think the putting down of roots to be making oneself unavailable to the future calls of God.

But what if in remaining move-able, we pastors have also missed out on leading God’s people in the important work of “place-making”?  Walter Brueggemann says this of what he calls our problem of “placelessness”:

“That promise concerned human persons who could lead detached, unrooted lives of endless choice and no commitment.  It was glamorized around the virtues of mobility and anonymity that seemed so full of promise for freedom and self-actualization.  But it has failed….It is now clear that a sense of place is a human hunger that urban promise has not met….it is rootlessness and not meaninglessness that characterizes the current crisis.  There are no meanings apart from roots.” – Brueggemann, The Land

With unemployment rates rising, we see huge benefits to websites offering to match jobs from the east with workers from the west.  To the availability and affordability of u-hauls, light-weight furniture, and new employment that includes paid moving expenses.  But what it also does is keep the “greener grass” mentality forever before us.  “Yes, I will live here and raise my family here.” is spoken with “..until something better is found, or my needs force me to look elsewhere.” being said under our breath.

I obviously has very little ground to stand on here.  I’m 30, and have changed addresses at least 6 times since turning 18.  But I think it’s important for us to recapture “place-making” as an important part of our faithfulness to God.  Ever since humanity was “displaced” from the Garden because of sin, God and His people have been working toward a return to implacement together.

So what does all of this mean?

It means that “home-making” is more of an important theological act than we’ve ever really given credit to.  It means figuring out how to stay in one place, and transforming that place by our extended presence and life with God may be more important than moving to where the gold rush of “success” is being promised.  That living this way may actually limit us, and force us to live more simply than if we were free to move based on whatever greener grass we thought would be inherently good for us and our great-grandchildren.  Caring for the structures of our aging homes, tending to the plant and animal life in our yard, and building long-term community with the people around us – have eternal value as these things are by nature done as liturgy, the “work of the people.”

Is it bad to move?  No.  There are plenty of good reasons to make the decision to follow God’s call to another place of residence.  But most of us don’t live in a culture where that’s the question being asked.

May that encourage us this week as we pull another weed, repaint the bedroom, mow our yard, feed our squirrels, hang new curtains, talk to our neighbors, and fix that board that keeps coming loose…