Gifts For Foster and Adoptive Families

As some of our readers know, Kimberly and I are planning to foster and adopt two young boys, ages 3 and 4.  I am very hesitant to right now to share more details online due to the fact that we are still in an early stage of the transition from their foster home to our home.  As thing progress, we will hopefully share much more.

Since this has begun, we have been blessed with friends and family who have blessed us with gifts and plan to throw showers for the occasion.  We are very grateful that people want to be apart of this and look forward to the day when they will permanently be apart of our lives and theirs.  The hard part for us in this regard is that we started out not having a clue as to what we needed and were/are constantly learning as we go what we will need for two boys ages 3 and 4, who already have A LOT of toys.  So, thank you to those of you who have helped us in this regard.

On the subject of help in this area, I have been listening to the Foster Parenting Podcast which is ran by a couple who have two girls about the same ages as our boys.  I would like to share an episode in which they offer helpful advice on giving gifts to foster and adoptive families.  Some of this you may already know, but at the least I hope it will be insightful as to what is really needed.  You can listen it here.

Love Isn’t Safe

“If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities…

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.  If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.  Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.  But in that casket-it will change.  It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.  The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.  The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness.”

- C.S. Lewis  The Four Loves

Greatness Redefined…

…or greatness upside down.  I borrowed that phrase from Derek Webb who released a CD entitled “I See Things Upside Down.”  When you become a disciple of Jesus things that you once valued go down and things that you once disdained go up.  Things like pride and humility.  In Jesus’ kingdom greatness is redefined:

“But Jesus called them together and said,“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them.  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20:25-28  NLT

“About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”  Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.  Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.  So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 18:1-4  NLT

Over the holidays I was reminded of these truths.  The reminder came in the form of an excited five and half-year old girl named Adeline.  Adeline is the daughter of a couple who have become good friends of ours.  They are also apart of our Missional Community.

Our MC gathered over the holidays to walk through a re-creation of Bethlehem, welcome a new family here to Warner Robins, and gather afterwards for a Christmas party.  As everyone was arriving, Adeline and her family showed up.  We mingled for a bit and played with the kids and then Adeline’s mother shared something that Adeline said on the way over.

Before I share what she said, I have to give some background to fully communicate how this hit me.  Our MC meets twice a month at our home for prayer, fellowship and discussion about the previous weeks sermons.  Adeline usually doesn’t join us because she is apart of an AWANA program that she loves.  This night she didn’t have AWANA and was able to join us.

Fast forward now back to our gathering.  As I’m playing with the kids, I over hear Adeline’s mother share that on the way over Adeline said that she was so excited to go to ‘missional community’.  Right then it hit me.  Adeline feels welcome and excited to be apart of this body. But, am I just as excited to have her apart of it as well and do I see her as more important than myself in the kingdom?  These things ran through my head and heart as I became broken over the beauty of her honesty and child likeness.

I’m sure that your probably thinking to yourself, “Geez Jason, she was just sharing her excitement.  Kids do this all the time you know.”  Yeah, I know and I want to be like that.  So, thank you Adeline for showing me a glimpse of greatness.

10 Things I’m Thankful For

10. That I have a job

9. That we have food and clothing

8. That we have a roof over our head

7. That I can see, hear, taste, touch and smell

6. For the people in my missional community that I co-shepherd. We’ve been at it for about a year and God has moved and brought and married and grown people in our midst. And I have seen Acts 2:42-47 come alive before my eyes. I love them and they are a blessing.

5. For the men and women at New City church that I co-shepherd with. Only God can take sinners and unite them in Jesus in order to build his church.

4. For the men who lead and shepherd me at New City. I am thankful for humble men who love Jesus and challenge me in word and deed.

3. For friends, specifically guys that have walked with me over the years through different chapters of life. That I have seen change and have watched me change. And through thick and thin, because of the gospel, we are closer than brothers.

2. For Kimberly. We just celebrated four years of marriage. I love her. Her beauty and intelligence are unrivaled. She is my teammate in this journey and I can’t think of anyone else so different, yet so fit to help me. Her companionship is a gift and a challenge that drives me constantly back to my need for Jesus in order to love her. Nothing else in this world will show you the depth of your sin like marriage.

1. For Jesus. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. He is my Creator, my Savior, my righteousness, my exceeding joy. He laid aside His eternal glory in order to become a human. He grew in his mother’s womb, grew as a child into a teenager, grew from a teenager into man. He lived life as a human and in all of it, he didn’t sin, not once. He claimed to be God and proved it by raising people from the dead and forgiving people of their sin. He lived the life I couldn’t live and died the death that I deserve. He freely gives me the perfection I need to be welcomed into the arms of God. He freely took all the sin and guilt that I had, have and will have upon Himself on a bloody cross. He subjected himself under God’s wrath and fury and completely satisfied it when He died. He rose from the dead, proving that he is who says he is and ascended back to God and lives to intercede for everyone who believes and follows Him. He now actively works in my life to give me strength to obey Him and to not sin. He uses pain and suffering to discipline and change me and freely gives me good things to enjoy. He is coming back to bring me safely into His presence where I will live forever in a new body, on a new earth in fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Along with that, he will also inflict vengeance on those who do not turn from a life of sin and believe Him.

What are you thankful for? To whom are you thankful?

Fight Club

This weekend I’m headed to Fight Club, the first Acts 29 conference in Georgia. Going with me, will be four guys from our Missional Community that I love dearly and have enjoyed growing and living life with. God has been good. This time last year, Kimberly and I were about a month into New City Church and the MC’s had not even launched yet. Now, I’m being joined by four other men who God has placed here who have a desire to grow in the grace of God and see it transform themselves, their families, their church and their cities.

I’m excited for all. The last time I went to an Acts 29 conference I came back more firmly rooted in the power of the gospel and the need to have everything we do filtered through that lens. The church needs leaders who eat, breath, and live the gospel. I also came back with greater affection for the men I serve with and who lead us. I don’t think I had laughed that hard in a long time, not only at them, but at myself. It reminded me of football camps when I was in high school, but this is sweeter.

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:1-2