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While we wait for Christmas, the world is waiting for something even more needed.  They are waiting for Jesus.  I don’t mean in a whimsical, “waiting for our Savior to return, waiting to go to Heaven someday, waiting for glory” kinda way.  I mean in a “desperate, life is unjust, people are dying and suffering, and evil is everywhere you turn” kinda way.

I remember in the beginning of our adoption process, we looked forward to not only transforming the life of our daughter, but also the impact it would have on our family.  We couldn’t wait to begin that process by bringing her home.  I had no idea how much it would impact us even during this past year of moving in this direction.

You may have seen the Democratic Republic of Congo in the news lately.  The conflict has been happening for years and years.  For the latest information on why there are M23 rebels and what they hope to accomplish, check this out.

That link is to an interview Jason Stearns did with a leader from M23 before they retreated from Goma last week.  Talks between the DRC Government and M23 are to begin Friday this week.  It seems both groups want the same thing – a healthy country.  They want the people to be free.  They want the people to be taken care of, and safe.  They want their country to prosper, and be developed.

In the dust of their marching boots, however, we see a country that continues to be torn to shreds by the very people who beat their chest in its defense.  Go ahead and read that article…and know “FARDC” refers to the DRC Army.  It seems that looting and rape and terror continues to be the way of life – no matter who holds the gun.

Now don’t start freaking out, thinking “You’re going to travel THERE!?”  Check out this post by a family currently living in Kinshasa, where we will most likely go when it’s time.  Most of the above atrocities are happening on the other side of the country.

Yet the hopelessness of the people living there should not be swept away easily.  The thoughts you may have had, concerned for my safety or that of my family – hold that burden for a moment, on behalf of those suffering in the Eastern DRC.  Feel the weight of a people truly and desperately WAITING for Jesus to move in a new way.  Be moved to desperate prayer, on their behalf and on behalf of many more around the world living in conditions like these.

Sure, we’d love if you could give toward the goal of rescuing our daughter from the DRC.  But don’t stop there.  Experience just a sliver of how God’s heart is broken for these people.  Hold the preciousness of their burden in your heart…and when it’s too heavy to bear, bring it to God.  And there, at the foot of God with your hands outstretched in prayer – look over…I’m smiling at you, and thanking you for coming with us…

When we were still dating back in college, our campus was holding a fund-raiser of some sort for “Sweetest Day”. I thought (and still think) “Sweetest Day” is a bit silly, but at the same time, how could any guy turn down the opportunity to communicate a bit of love to the girl he’s trying to win over?

They were selling cans of “Crush” soda. For a certain price, you could have a can delivered to the mailbox of your choice. I looked at the price they were charging, looked at how much 12-packs cost at the store, and it was a no-brainer. So I went to the grocery store and got a few 12-packs to surprise her with. Looking back, I imagine everyone going to their mailboxes, and getting a can of “Crush” from their significant other. I wonder if she may have been momentarily disappointed that her beau didn’t find the time to send her one as well.

But I remember the reaction when I brought her out to my car, and opened the trunk. I totally won, whatever game or contest that was. That’s love being efficient.

But recently I’ve been reminded, both in my reading and in life, that more often – love is extremely IN-efficient.

This past Sunday, on the way to church, our 6 year old asked the question, “Daddy, when can we help clean up God’s world?” I asked her what she meant, and she went on, “Well, people litter and God wants us to help take care of His world. When can we help clean it up?”

I looked at my wife, apparently she’d asked that same question the day before when they were out. So it seemed my daughter wanted to show God her love for his world by helping clean it up.

An efficient response would have been: Create a sign-up sheet. Get a large group of people with large bags and pokers. To plan out a mapped area of who goes where, and collect as much garbage as possible.

So what did we do?

Well, they wanted to stay in their dresses (“It’s more comfortable, dad.”), so I at least made them roll up the sleeves. I gave a trash bag to a 3, 4, and 6 year old girl and we loaded into the van. I told them I would drive until they asked me to stop, so they needed to be looking for an area that needed to be cleaned. We pulled over in a pretty high-traffic area, and unloaded. We walked up and down a sidewalk, pulling small pieces of trash out of yards and public places for about an hour. Finally our oldest daughter said, “Okay dad, I think we’ve done enough for now.” We loaded back into the van, and took our small bags of trash to a nearby park to throw away…and enjoy the weather a bit.

It was frustratingly inefficient at times. My daughters weren’t in “find trash and throw it away” mode. They were in “take a walk, and discover trash by accident and make dad touch it” mode for the most part. We didn’t exactly win any awards for how great the sidewalk looked afterward.

For God to come as Jesus was an amazingly inefficient way to make all things new.  A vulnerable baby boy?  To an unmarried young virgin?  Certainly many of us, would have chosen another route for God to take.  It’s already taken thousands of years.  But His Love continues to move and accomplish toward completion (Phil 1:6).  Likewise, adopting one orphan, is an inefficient way to bring change to the people living in the DRC.  Yet, God has called, and we’re following…believing that just as Christ has modeled – sometimes loving like God doesn’t look efficient to the world.

My daughters learned that they’re capable to help clean up God’s world. That whatever they have to offer, is acceptable and pleasing to God. That their love, even at this age, makes God’s heart skip a beat…

Where has your love been inefficient in great ways recently??

This week, we light the first candle.  We begin to fill the darkness with a single light, and it brings Hope.  Hope that more light is coming…

Ephesians 4:24 “and to clothe yourself with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

I really like this verse.  Particularly the phrase “new self”.  We desire to be made new, and it’s not about shedding everything we’ve ever been through as if we could forget how this broken world has impacted us.  How we’ve been hurt, cheated, lied to, offended.  How we’ve hurt, cheated, lied to, and offended others.  So many of those things, even after forgiveness comes, linger in the corners of our minds and the back of our soul…and we convince ourselves that a good Christian would be able to forget completely the ways of this world…so we pretend we have.

But this and other verses (2 Corinthians 5:4) remind us that it’s not about destroying who we have been and building completely from the ground up.  Any more than God is about scrapping the entire cosmos in order to rebuild things completely different.  It’s about God taking what exists, and “swallowing up by life”.

God desires to take what has happened, and what is happening in our lives, and “clothe” these things with a new purpose.  Not to ignore what it is, and pretend hearing words like these will automatically bring hope to those who have experienced immense pain.  But approaching what is, genuinely and with a Love and Desire to make all things New.  To redeem our entire lives, transforming not only our hearts and minds, but our history as well.

The words for “new self” continue to be very encouraging.  The word “new” is “kainos”, which can either mean new form (recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn), or new substance (of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of).  I would think both translations could be quite Hope-filling.

It also helps that the verse directly before it uses the words “put away your former way of life, your old self”.  The word for old here is “palaios”, which means old, ancient, no longer new, worn by use, comes from the root word for “former” or “long ago”.

I think it’s one of the reasons I love ministering with teenagers.  They understand the concept of acquiring a new identity, and letting go of an old one.  Heck, many of them develop new identities on an annual basis as they go from 7th-12th grades. (usually just one in 6th or 7th, another in 9th, and another toward the end of 12th) 🙂  So the task becomes, allowing them to see that can happen from God in a way that is quite supernaturally different from receiving it from their peers, culture, or family situations.  Thank you, Jesus….for these words of Hope…