Rescued

Ephesians 1:3-6- “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.  Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.  Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)  He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”-The Message 

Colossians 1:13-14- “God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much,  the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.” –The Message

I was recently struck by how many “rescued children” attend the school where I teach. “Rescued children” is how I have come to think of children who have been adopted.  Many of these kids come from extreme circumstances.  They came from orphanages in China, Russia, or Kazakhstan.  Or they came out of children’s homes or the foster care system in the U.S.  Some were abused or neglected while others were relatively well cared for.  But they all have one thing in common.  They were previously without a family and now they have one.  They now have a father, a mother, and siblings.

 I can’t imagine what that must feel like for these kids.  Many of them were adopted when they were a bit older so they remember their old life.  They know what it is to be alone and fatherless and they know what it is to have a family.  The great thing about kids is that they tend to live in the moment.  I really don’t think they spend a lot of time pondering their old life (not that they aren’t affected by it.) They just know where they are now.  They know they are loved. They know they have opportunities. They know they have a family.

Kind of like us.  There are no natural born children of God.  If we belong to God, it didn’t just happen. He flew to a foreign orphanage, chose us, rescued us, adopted us into his family, and continues to love and protect us. He calls us his children and we call him “Dad.” He rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of his beloved Son. We now have identity, purpose, and family. And we know what love is. 

Adoption is an amazing picture of God’s love for us.  God’s heart is for the orphan.  If we have the heart of God we will also be passionate about the plight of the fatherless.  “We love because he first loved us.”

I didn’t want this article to be preachy but I do feel like I need to put in a plug for 2 of my favorite orphan care organizations.  The first one is Youthreach International.  We have been involved with this organization for several years, have been to Russia and have seen first -hand the amazing work that they do.  Lives are being changed through camps and mentoring programs.  Check it out: www.youthreach.org

We are also involved with an organization called Christian Relief Fund.  They are based in Amarillo and operate child sponsorship programs in about 30 countries worldwide.  Check them out: www.christianrelieffund.org.

Finally, check out this amazing song.  One of my all time favorites. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnS1WDwosA4

Thank you, LORD, for rescuing me.

Square Peg in a Round Hole

Most people probably just say that I’m “a little different.”  Some may go as far as calling me a freak or weirdo.  The fact is that I am a little odd.  Okay, maybe a lot odd.  When I sat down to list all of the ways that I don’t fit within what is culturally considered “normal” I was actually shocked with the length of the list.  I’ll give you just an overview of all the ways that I don’t necessarily fit.

1)      We lived in Siberia for 4 years… when our 2 oldest children were just babies/toddlers.

2)      Our son has autism.

3)      We do the “home church” thing.

4)      I gave birth to my youngest at home with a midwife.

5)      We drink unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk. 

6)      I just washed my hair with a baking soda and water solution instead of shampoo.

7)      I don’t eat pork, shellfish, or other Biblically “unclean” foods.

I could actually go on but I think I’ll stop before you close this web page never to open it again. 

So that’s why I chose “Square Peg in a Round Hole” as the title to my blog.  Frankly, most of the time I am very aware of the fact that I don’t fit and I often fight against this.  I want to fit in.  I want people to like me.  But, to tell you the truth, another part of me likes being different.   Even though I don’t always succeed, I want to be a person of conviction… someone who lives what I believe even if it is unpopular.  Even if it makes other people scratch their head.  

On my list, I left out the main way that I am different.  I am different because I follow Jesus and am a daughter of God.  My prayer is that this alone will set me apart.  That people will recognize me as different, not because of the quirky decisions that I make, but because of the Spirit of Christ that lives inside of me. That I will be baffling to most people, not because of the fact that I moved my family to Siberia or milked goats or tossed my shampoo but because of what it says in I John 3:1: “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God ; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” And that I will never become too comfortable in this life because, after all, “This world is not my home.”

Why Blog?

I finally took the plunge.  I have wanted to start a blog for a while but something kept holding me back.  What was it?  I mean, I love the idea of blogging.  I love the fact that anyone can be a published author.  I love how blogging gives people the opportunity to express themselves in written form and allows them to put a part of themselves out there for the world to see.  Permanently.  Oh wait…. Maybe that’s it.  What if I’m not a good writer? What if people don’t enjoy it? What if I say something that I later regret? Start a blog? No thanks… too risky.

But here’s the kicker… I happen to believe in taking risks. I believe that is how we grow.  And I know that the only way to become a better writer is to write.  I believe that writing is good for the soul.  Sometimes I have a lot of jumbled up stuff going on in my head and writing gives me a way to organize it.  Or sometimes the LORD is teaching me something that is so exciting that I just have to share it!   So the main purpose of this blog is this:  it gives me a way to process, reflect on, and organize the things that the LORD is teaching me.  And, just maybe, he will use it to teach you something as well.

So, what can you expect from this blog? Well, I like to write about things that I am passionate about and here are a few of the things that do it for me:

1.       The kingdom of God

2.       My family

3.       Relationships/community

4.       The responsibility of  passing on my legacy of Faith to my children

5.       Food and recipes

6.       Our life with autism

7.       Missions/Russia

8.       Teaching kids

9.       Health and nutrition

So, thanks for stopping by and I hope that this blog blesses you.  To conclude this first blog entry I would like to include an excerpt from another blog:

"No one ever gets talker's block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.

Why then, is writer's block endemic?

The reason we don't get talker's block is that we're in the habit of talking without a lot of concern for whether or not our inane blather will come back to haunt us. Talk is cheap. Talk is ephemeral. Talk can be easily denied.

We talk poorly and then, eventually (or sometimes), we talk smart. We get better at talking precisely because we talk. We see what works and what doesn't, and if we're insightful, do more of what works. How can one get talker's block after all this practice?

Writer's block isn't hard to cure.

Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.  Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing).

If you're concerned with quality, of course, then not writing is not a problem, because zero is perfect and without defects. Shipping nothing is safe.

Write like you talk. Often."

Seth Godin

So here goes nothing…