Be Careful What You Ask For

baby feet Be Careful What You Ask ForI’ve asked God to break my heart for the lost. He gave it to me, in the form of twin four month old babies.

This was not what I expected. Eh, not what I wanted. But, it is.

As I sit here writing this blog one of the babies is sleeping next to me. He’s smiling in his sleep. And farting…in his sleep. How do you NOT love a kid that does that?

I can’t keep thinking about the rough life these two babies are headed for. They will not grow up with a lot of money (hell, they’ll more than likely be on welfare most their life) and probably won’t grow up in a church. I don’t know if they’ll get to even hear of their Creator. Their real Father. And my heart is broken.

I look at their innocent faces and weep. I weep for their eternal future and I pray for them. The odds are stacked against them…big time. But I serve a powerful God and I’m not counting these two out for an eternal glory.

What these babies have done for me is renewed my motivation for evangelism. I need to speak with people more about who God is and why I serve Him. And I need to do this with people that are not in my comfort zone. People who have had their children taken away. People who aren’t what most would describe as good parents, good people. People who NEED Jesus.

So I’m Preaching

I volunteered to give the sermon at one of Spring Creek’s Sunday services. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m a bit nervous.

I’ve been preparing for this time for a while now, waiting on God to speak (verbally) about what he wants me to say. I haven’t heard anything (verbally) yet, but I have grown closer to Him with my prep time.

When you know you’re going to be giving a message to 60-70 incarcerated teens you know you need to be prepared for anything. So that’s what I’ve been studying, everything. This has led me down some pretty crazy paths, and some pretty crazy books (future blog post to come).

I’ve put together the outline and I’ll be giving my testimony (briefly) and then talking about God. I figure when you talk about God that keeps things interesting. We shall see.

And speaking of preaching here’s a snippet from one of my favorite sermons by Louie Giglio.

And Just Like That She Was Gone

We said goodbye to our 14 year old foster child this past weekend. We’ve had her for nearly a year. It was rough.

When I tell people I do foster care many of them say “I’d love to do that, but I couldn’t deal with letting a child go.” I’ll tell ya, me either. It was hard to say goodbye to such a great kid. She had been with us for nearly a year and was part of the family. But, she has her own family, and she’s where she belongs.

One of the coolest moments about saying goodbye was when her Mom gave my wife a hug and said “thank you”. That doesn’t happen a lot in foster care and it was pretty cool to see and was , well, gratifying.

During our foster care support group one of the new foster parents said “how do you let a child go that’s been with you for a long time.” A veteran foster parent (I believe she’s had 65+ kids come and go in her home) said “you grieve…and then you pray that God prepares your heart for the next child.”

So, we’re grieving…and preparing. God has a plan and he knows what’s coming next, and that’s what we’re trusting.