Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear preceeds the crown we wear. To be a Christian one must take up his cross with all its difficulties and agonizing and tension-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes through suffering.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?

Mark 8: 34-37

I carry this verse in my wallet to remind me of my true purpose, so that when I become blinded by my selfish ambition, I can be reminded that all things I do are from my soul and the Lover of my soul.

Unneccessary Families

I wish that adoption was not necessary, I wish that the plight of the fatherless did not weigh so heavily on my heart. What would the world be if no foster or adoptive families were needed? What if parents could care for and love their children despite their circumstances? What if none of my students were living without parents and struggling with their pasts? What if families came along side other struggling families in all countries to allow them to love and raise their children?

I suppose a world like this, would be a world before the fall of man. I suppose that part of the reality is that men are unable (unwilling) to be fathers and women struggle as mothers, the temptations of this world are greater than the temptation to raise and love and grow our children. If the reality is that there are children who do not have parents, if the reality is that mothers and fathers die of aids and genocide and drugs, than we will adopt. We will take the fatherless and provide the most love we can, all the while knowing that love cannot erase the past. I weep for the children whose parents do not love them, whose communities have abandoned them and who hold little hope in themselves or their future.

I know that I talk about adoption and orphans a lot, but that is because I believe, with the every depth of my being, that it is our call as Christ Followers to take up these children and love them and raise them as children of Christ and changers in this world. I will never stop loving, I will never stop grieving, and I will never forget the plight of the fatherless.