Elton John and Your Faith

I want to tell you a story. I'll let you know upfront that is has nothing to do with adoption. But it has everything to do with faith and belief and boldness in prayer. I think you are going to like this story! Every time I tell it my faith is stirred and I am challenged to believe God for the ridiculously impossible. And I don't know about you, but I find that sometimes parenting demands the ridiculously impossible! 

A long time ago, in a family far far away..... 

(I think this story was in our BA period otherwise known as "Before Adoption", but either way, so much has happened since then in our lives that it feels like another world!) 

.....Stephen and I went to a Sunday evening prayer meeting at our church here in Atlanta. We love going to a church that truly enjoys praying. I don't remember that there was any theme to the prayer time-- just people praying as they felt led by the Holy Spirit. So, one woman said something like,

 "I know this sounds crazy and weird, but I really feel like the Lord is saying we should pray for Elton John." 

Well, she was right, that was weird! We had never prayed for a celebrity before, and no one had mentioned anything related to Elton John at all. But in our crowd, hearing from God and moving according to the Spirit's leading is pretty normal, so.... we all prayed for Elton John. Besides, why not? No doubt this man is loved by God-- and that He would want to bless him is not actually strange at all. But....well, it got weirder after that. 

Then this bold woman of God said, "I really feel that we should ask God to send someone from our church to somehow cross Elton John's path." Now, that was bold, wasn't it?! But you know what-- why not? We did pray that somehow God would do such a thing. What a crazy prayer! I figure that prayer had to be led by the Holy Spirit because otherwise there is no way that we would have thought of such a thing to pray about.

Now, here's where the story gets really great. Shocking actually.

Two of our precious daughters, Emma and Rachel, both sang in a city-wide children's choir. That week we got an email saying that a small group of singers would be chosen to record a song WITH ELTON JOHN for the movie, Finding Neverland.

You are probably guessing this-- both Emma and Rachel were chosen to sing. We couldn't believe it! We knew God was up to something here. Something wonderful, ridiculously wonderful! Just in case they wouldn't have the opportunity to speak to him, Emma and Rachel both wrote letters to Elton John, letters telling him that they had been praying for him. Telling him that he is loved by a God who knows him and thinks about him, and asks complete strangers to pray for him....

You can see Emma in the pink shirt standing on the left, and Rachel in the white shirt and pig tails second on the right from Elton John.

I am telling you this story because I am hoping that it will stir faith in you as it does me-- faith for God to do ridiculously amazing things in our children's lives. The kind of faith that causes us as parents to boldly ask God to do the crazy good stuff that is way beyond the norm for adopted children but that is in our hearts as parents.

What is it that you desire for your children? I mean completely apart from all the possibilities that you can grasp or imagine. Things that you would feel a bit embarrassed to ask because they are just too good and too unreasonable and too "out there." Things that would demand God's hand!

Those of you who were able to come to Hope at Home 2011 will remember that Greg Haswell spoke on praying with "Shameless Audacity." It was a word that had impact. You can read about one response to that talk here. It's a great testimony! 

Will you join me in believing God for the ridiculously impossible things we desire for our children?