Changing Course

Have you ever read a verse that just sticks with you?  That you just can not shake?  Several years ago, I read a verse that I had read many times before.  But it just really got me thinkings.  It was Ephesians 5:1, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children."  Such a simple verse.  But Scott and I could not shake it.  I do not think any verse in God's Word is inconsequential so even though this verse is short, I think we can read it very literally.  So we started thinking about it and since we are to be imitators of God, we started thinking about exactly what that meant.  We are major list people so, of course, we then started a list. A list of the characteristics of God.  Every time we read another passage in the Bible, there were more characteristics.  What resounded with us was how much He cares for the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widow.  I mean He really, really cares!  I have heard there are over 2000 verses that reference these people groups and I can believe it because they were popping up all through our readings.  We realized we really did not have a heart for any of these groups, at least nothing like God does.  And if we are to be imitators of God, we needed to check our hearts!  We had two children by the time Scott graduated from college, and 4 by the time I graduated from college.  We spent years just in survival mode!  Orphan care and adoption had been nowhere on our radar.  I really admire people who can say they have always had a heart for those things.  That just was not us though.  But as we prayed about it and thought about it and talked about what we should do, the seed started to grow.  Scott and I were taking a trip to Nevada and looking for some podcasts to download for us to listen to on the plane.  We settled on a series by David Platt on the book of James.  We decided on this because it fit into the time frame we would have to listen, not any divine word from God.  (Can you tell we are very straight-line thinking, practical, engineering type people?!)  So we are sitting on that plane, listening to Platt, and he gets to James 1:27.  "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."  Then he told how he had come to know how many children in the Birmingham area were in need of foster care and announced his plan to get enough families in their church licensed for foster care so that they, as a church, could cover that need.  We sat there in tears, knowing that was our calling.  And we have covered the rest of the story in past posts.  So in a not-so-nutshell, that is how one verse has altered our course.  It always amazed me to look back, and see how God lays the breadcrumbs for us to follow.  Then, we were just booking along in our nice, comfortable, happy life.  Not a tear shed for orphans - ever.   Now,  we have a tremendous burden for orphans and children in need and almost daily tears.  Mark Batterson calls it a 'divine burden' in his book, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day.   And that is what we consider it because we would never have felt like this on our own.  We are not all called to adoption - certainly.  But James 1:27 does apply to anyone who calls himself/herself a follower of Christ.  We all have a part to play.  Have you considered what your part is?  We would love to hear from you about what verses have impacted you or altered the course of your life.