Daring to be Restless

As long as I can remember, both my sister and I have wanted to adopt. Throughout our childhood, our favorite movies and books have always centered around adoption – adopted characters, misfit families of people who weren’t related but became “family” when they needed it most.   It’s no surprise that our favorite Bible verses have been adoption verses as well, verses like Psalm 68:5-6, where God says that He is the Father of the fatherless, who places the lonely in families. Perhaps that’s why Russia has always been on our hearts, a place of interest to us both.   I even studied Russian for a year in college, soaking up the language and dreaming of the people there.   According to some reports, there are over 700,000 orphans in Russia alone, living in more than 2,176 orphanages or on the streets – and the numbers are rising each year.   The outcomes for these children are particularly grim, most of them “aging out” of the orphanages around the age of 16 or 17 a...

-           “Every person needs to take one day away.   A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.   Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us … Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.   Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us …” – Maya Angelou Leviticus … *Sigh*   There’s a part of me that always groans when I reach the point in the year when my Bible Reading Plan points me to the pages of Leviticus.   The lists of rules, sacrifices, and the distinction between the clean and unclean – though I recognize these probably saved the people of God from being wiped out by diseases they could not cure at the time – they wear on my ability to focus as I read.   I’m sure some/most of you can relate. However, this last week, as I was dragging myself through my...

We’re all familiar, I’m sure, with the terminology “couch-potato,” a slang term for a person “who spends little or no time exercising and a great deal of time watching television.” [1]    Along with many of my fellow Americans, I admit that I have been guilty of being a couch potato at various points in my life, but until recently had never given much thought to the term.   I have always thought of couch-potatoes as people who were not doing something they should be doing.   While this is true, I have given much more thought in the last week to how a person becomes a couch potato, about what they are doing that they should not be doing, and how this applies to our walk with God .   Allow me to explain. While preparing for a Bible Study with a young friend in the Midwest a couple weeks ago, I was struck by Psalm 1:1.   Notice the bolded words in this verse: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the ...

I need therapy.   I admit it.   Every day I am reminded that I cannot do life on my own.   I am not strong enough.   I have believed lies, been wounded in the battle for my soul, and encountered grief deeper than my ability to cope.   This realization has been heavy on my heart lately, as more and more things in life have gone wrong, as more and more battles have been to the death, threatening the lives of young hearts and lives with so much potential.   And it is in these moments that God has brought to remembrance a Scripture I’ve known for years, but never fully appreciated – Isaiah 9:6.   It says: “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor , Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace.” I love that it begins by saying the government – the weight of responsibility, decision making and leadership – rests on His s...