http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2011/02/if-god-told-me-to-i-would.html
love to hear your thoughts. i have felt this same disdain for excuses throughout the years. greg has often said that most of the time people aren't actively engaging the idea of foster/adoption & orphan care...they are just excusing themselves from it. we need never gripe about any group who does what we, the church, should do for the oppressed. we, of all people, should be sacrificing our comfort, pleasure and selfish pursuits to love, parent, treasure & welcome into the church- the least of these. this is the true fast. do not expect your children to one day do what they do not see you model now. the messiness of the gospel, the messiness of the incarnation, the mundane, normal, christian life involves us living, embracing, and struggling through our own discomforts and dealing with our sin, to provide life for those who have no hope.
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2 comments:
I follow A Place Called Simplicity as well and really appreciated this current blog post. After almost a year of foster parenting, I have started responding a bit more boldly to "I could never do what you do." I used to just say, "I used to think the same thing" which pointed out that my heart had changed, and subtly that that the speaker's heart could as well. However, that never really seemed to be enough.
Now when someone says that to me, I respond with "Sure you could," which is usually followed by a list of excuses at to why that person is unwilling to even consider it as an option. Sometimes, I just leave a long awkward silence. If I have the energy, I'll say, "Yes, I used to have some of those same concerns, and many are valid, but the point at which I signed up to be a foster parent was the point at which God laid on my heart that all of those reasons were about me, and the real question was am I willing to accept those realities for the sake of a child who has suffered more than I could ever comprehend."
I've found most people don't really want to be challenged. They want someone to make them comfortable in their selfishness, and I just refuse to be another person doing that. The foster parent road is HARD, and I never pretend it is not, but hard doesn't mean we're not called to it. :)
what an incredible story they have.
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