Orphan Sunday

Today is my second favorite Sunday of the year, right behind Easter. It is the day the church, the body of believers, look to the orphans around the world. The thing is, one day a year will not cut it. 

The truth about orphans is there is around 200,000,000 orphans in our world. In the US, there are 400,000 children in foster care and 102,000 of them are waiting to be adopted. 

My question is, how is the church just sitting back and watching this? How can the body of believers look past the orphans and continue on? How are the those claiming to be like Christ accept that there are 200 million children without families across the globe and in their backyards?

It is because those kids don't have faces to them, it is generalized. "The Orphans". 

They don't picture their faces, hear their laugh, remember all the little facts about them. I have a list of 48 Royal Family Kids* from the past 2 years on a constant loop in my mind. I remember the voice of 'Dr. Higglebottom' from one little girl. I replay the scene from talent night of a little boy hula-hooping to train sounds while 3 counselors flew around him like airplanes. I saw how happy the simple things like playing catch-the-flying-teddy-bear for 30 minutes straight made two little girls or stacking all the trash as high as possible made a table of boys. I remember a quiet little boy telling me Friday morning that I was the only cool girl because I gave out the mail. I remember the joy of two siblings, who were not living together at the time, got from writing each other letters. I remember what I felt when a little girl was making her mom a craft, when I knew she was not living with her anymore. I remember that helpless feeling when a girl told me how much she hated living with her grandma. And unfortunately, the thing I remember most is that each of those 48 kids are back in their daily lives, where consistency and affection is slim-to-none, in many cases.

Their faces make James 1:27 come alive to me:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

That is the call of the Lord for us. To look after the orphans. 

The way we do this is by remembering how the Father adopted and is constantly loving us. 

Galatians 4:4-7 says it perfectly:

"But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."

 We remember that He sent his perfect and blameless Son down to teach us how to love. He was the example we are meant to strive after. The Father redeemed us through his only begotten Son's death on a cross. By this, we are able to claim salvation and eternal life. We are now able to have a personal relationship with the Father. We are able to call him Father and he calls us children. We are His heirs. We are able to draw into him and know his heart. That is how we love the orphans. We thank the Lord for showing us such gracious love and we draw into him. We learn who He is at His core and we become passionate for His causes. The call of God for us to love the orphans is now our loving Father telling us to go show the love He shows us to those who need it desperately. 

My prayer for the sweet faces I remember so, so often, that make this call come alive, is simply Philippians 1: 3-8:

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus."

We are called. So let's go. Let's act on our faith because we have a God big enough to hold us up as we go. 

Praise the Lord, again!

*Royal Family Kids Camp is a week-long camp for kids in foster care and I love talking about it! So talk to me about it or check out their website: http://royalfamilykids.org!

Change

Change. A simple, 6-letter word. But, it is such a scary word to most. It holds so much power in our lives. We have our ways, our traditions, our places, our schedules, our families, our friends, all of our constants. But, then change comes around.

College (from what I’ve seen so far) is an overwhelming amount of change. One day, you’re in your hometown with all of your close friends hanging out where you have for years and not worrying about a thing because you still have a safety net. Then, boom. You’re living in a new city with so many new people without a safety net under you. Your parents aren’t around telling you what you should do. The teachers you’ve been around for years aren’t there to help you out anymore. You have absolutely no idea what club to join or where to plug in. Your friends aren’t there to go grab a bite or take a quick WalMart run with you. Mom isn’t there to wash your clothes or clean the dishes. Your sweet, cuddly dog isn’t there to make a bad day better.

You’ve got yourself. And sometimes that feels like all you have.

My first couple weeks at college have been a little different than that though. With an older sister, an older brother, and a lot of older friends, I already had a safety net in Auburn. I didn’t have to go through the painful adjustment to dorm life because I decided to live off campus with some girls that are just like big sisters to me. I had an idea of where I wanted to plug in already. I had seen through my siblings how serious college classes are and how important studying is. I lived in Auburn for a week with my sister one time, so I knew my way around town. I had even looked up the transit that takes me from my apartment to campus. I was ready for college life. I was ready to be on my own.

Even though my transition has been somewhat easier than a lot of freshmen on campus, I have had to get use to a lot of things. Like coming home from class at 11:30 to an empty apartment. What does one do with so much free time?! I don’t know how to be that productive! And my dog isn’t even here to entertain me! (#ilovelucy) But, not having a car in Auburn and living off campus has been a major adjustment. And there’s little things everyday like not knowing anyone to go talk to in the Student Center to kill time before my next class. Or not be able to see/talk to my best friends everyday, the ones in Auburn and not. But one of the most difficult things has been making new freshmen friends. I came to Auburn with all of my older friends here and so many freshmen from Madison coming with me. It is so hard to branch out of such a huge comfort zone.

At this point, you’re probably wondering why I’m still talking about my transition to college life. It’s simple. I want you to see everything that is changing for me, before I tell you the most important part about coming to college. And here it is:

There is one constant.

And His name is Jesus.

Even while everything seems to be changing for me, the same God that has walked with me everyday is still here. The same God that brought the Israelites out of Egypt. The same God who humbly came into a broken world to be hope. The same God who lived a perfect and blameless life. The same God who healed the sick, taught the masses, and washed the feet of the disciples. The same God who was betrayed and brutally killed by being hung on a cross. The same God that, through that, conquered death FOREVER. The same God that tore the veil, so that we could be in relationship with Him. The same God that we can now confidently claim salvation and eternal life in. The same God that has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!

We do not deserve this! We are not “good” people by any means of the word.  We did nothing to earn this. We sin against the Most High God constantly. But, He sees us as His children and he pours His mercy and grace on us. If that’s not something to celebrate daily, then what is?!

I have a constant. A hope. An eternal love. An everlasting joy. A Rock that is higher than I that I can cling to. He is here and He is working in my life. That is what keeps me going even when everything is changing.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, indeed.