CHANGING THE WORLD

FROM BRIAN HILLIS: 

So many of us begin our adoption journey with the sentiment of that Starfish poem in our hearts....

One beautiful and sunny day a man was taking a stroll along the beach
when he came across a young girl who was frantically throwing starfish
into the ocean. The man asks the young girl, "Why are you throwing the
starfish into the ocean?" The girl replied, "The starfish were washed
upon the shore last night in a storm, and if I don't get them back into
the ocean then they will die." The man looked around and to his
amazement there were hundreds of starfish lying upon the sand. He looked
at her and cackled saying "Why are you wasting your time? There is no
possible way you can save all of these creatures. By throwing back a
few, how is it that you expect to make a difference?" The young girl
looked around sadly at the starfish that surrounded them on the beach,
and then she looked back at the man and replied "Even if I save the life
of only one, then I have made a difference." And with that she continued
to save as many as she could.

(Author Unknown)

We think, maybe we could CHANGE THE WORLD for just one child....

and then, adopting one - or two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight -- however many....

we are disturbed by all those other children in need of families,

and our lives become testaments to a passion to somehow also make some difference

for those more on the shore

AND for those special ones we picked and tossed right smack into our homes and hearts.

We become REFORMERS.

But I learned an important lesson this week about REFORMERS 

during some time with the Lord....

I am seeing that politicians don't like reformers

AND

God doesn't need reformers.

Just look at John the Baptist....thrown into prison by a politician whose wife didn't like him. Then, rather than the miracle of the prison doors opened by an angel, John the Baptist has his head chopped off.  So clearly, Jesus could accomplish everything He needed to without him. 

I don't know about you,

but there are many times in this adoption journey that I have felt helpless and hopeless --

kind of like being imprisoned unjustly. 

And I've decided...

God is much more interested in

His changing me

than in

in me changing the world.

Changing me so that my PURPOSE trumps my PASSION

My purpose....to love God and love people

My passion, to see childrens' lives transformed

by the tenderness of the Shepherd.

So, today, Lord, we ask, make us content with living lives of PURPOSE

more dedicated to You changing us than to us changing them.

We want to know, like Milton in his Sonnet to His Blindness, 

They also serve who only stand and wait. 

And Lord we do....stand before Your glorious presence and

Wait on your tender love to encompass and fill us.

Again and Again..

Amen.