Sunday, March 18, 2012

A Worthy Cause

I'm proud to be an adoption advocate!
I run in circles of people with whom I share this passion.
Often I am overwhelmed and inundated with the impassioned pleas that find their way to my computer screen.

Yes, I want Joseph Kony, the Ugandan thug and perpetrator of genocide to be caught and punished.

Yes, I want every child with Down Syndrome to find a loving home and not languish in an institution.

I want AIDS/ HIV to be eradicated. I would love to help find a cure.

Based on the recent passing away of my beautiful grandmother (to cancer), it would thrill me if a cure for cancer were discovered and the hospice center that made her last days so bearable was awarded millions of dollars somehow.

I desperately want to see prayer allowed back into our public schools and true, Biblical morality restored to our country.

I am in great danger of becoming a victim of diluted efforts.

I remember when my husband and I took Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" together. Dave clearly stressed that we were to attack ONE DEBT at a time with a vengeance. He highlighted how dividing up our funds and paying the same on each debt results in diluted efforts. Nothing gets "paid off" and everything stays pretty much the same.

I can see myself doing this in the causes I long to support. They are all GOOD things. They are all vehicles for the sharing of the gospel and things that I believe the people of God should be investing in.

But I don't want to dilute my efforts.

Does that mean when friends are fund raising for their various passions, I should say "no" to all who do not support the things I hold dear? No! God's word tells us to give to all who have need, and not to hold back.

What I don't want to do is be a valiant, well-intentioned beggar, always asking for donations to one cause or another, flip flopping in my scope to the cause of the day but never sticking with anything long enough to develop roots.

For me, Philippine adoption of waiting children is what makes my heart beat fast. It's a topic of conversation I have to be careful not to dominate when it comes up. It's a place I feel confident in the knowledge that God has given me. It's a country I love. It's a place where beautiful children with fairly low instances of institutional abuse takes place (yes, it happens there, too sadly) and everything about this country, people and culture is precious to me. I have trouble understanding why anyone would look anywhere else for their child - but I know that is my own passion and bias talking.

God calls us all to different passions to accomplish The Great Commission and meet the needs of the poor, orphaned and widowed of the world.

Ask Him to show you your passion! Ask Him to light a fire in your heart that can only be quenched by walking in your calling! Ask Him to use YOUR life to change someone else's life. Ask Him how YOU can make His name great right in your little corner of the world and across the globe.

Don't let The Enemy dilute your efforts and trick you into ineffectual service.
Life's too short and the needs are too great.

What is your God-given passion???? Walk in it!

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