If you know me or have read by blog then you know I am passionate about children. More specifically I am passionate about the orphan. I have been heavy hearted about adoption becoming a trend instead of calling. It is a subject that I think many believers have thought about and I believe it is a subject every believer should be in prayer about.
Heidi Weimer (http://www.wehaveroom.blogspot.com/), mom of 10 children- 6 through adoption and 4 biological children- puts my prayers into perfect words. This is why I am thankful for good writers so when I can't express my feelings others can :)
"During the last couple of years of watching this virtual adoption community increase exponentially, I have noticed that the collective passion has transformed into a collective zeal for the sake of the orphan. The Church, slowly but surely even if still with a long way to go, is awakening to God’s heart for the most vulnerable. THIS IS A GREAT THING and particularly refreshing for those of us who tend to feel like the social justice oddballs in the Church. I believe that God must be incredibly pleased with this awakening. In fact, since it is HIS movement in HIS Church for the sake of HIS children, I am sure of it.
While observing and cheering on this movement for the orphan, however—and particularly during extended quieted seasons when the Lord has asked me to turn inward and sanctify myself for Him—God has been gently showing me that we can very subtly pervert this miraculous movement of God into a ministry that misses both the point (serving Jesus) and the target (the lost world). We can very easily veer from the precipitating Person of our passion until we are no longer following Jesus into the world, but instead building a ministry to others as a cloak for making a name for ourselves—even amidst all of our so-called self-sacrificing. It is a fine line, yes, but one that distinguishes between serving our Savior because of His righteousness and serving our self-righteousness in the name of our Savior.
She also goes on to say:
Would not the saddest irony be for believers in the orphan movement today to get “true religion” but become true religious Pharisees in the process? Church, let us be so cautious. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves or on others. Let us not pursue adoption or orphan care because it is the newest, trendiest stamp of righteousness in the Church. Let us not become advocates because so-and-so did and “has such a great story” and we want to be just like them. Or so that we can proudly wave our own banners and get some attention in the Kingdom. We serve but one Master, and “no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16). As Jedd Medefind reminded us at Summit VII, we cannot truly reflect Jesus “if we aren’t hungry for Him and in love with HIM.” We will instead reflect our own selves and our own zeal from a dimly lit bulb, all the while foolishly screaming the self-righteous message “My light is brighter than yours.”
There is one Great Light of the world that we are to reflect. Church, it’s time to check our motives. What is fueling our passion for the orphan? Have we gotten off-target? Have we made an idol of adoption? Has our own passion become our precipitator? Have we begun to serve a cause instead of our Christ? Have we made “true religion” our own “little g” god? Don’t think that it’s not a possibility. Just ask the Pharisees. After all, they thought they “got it.”
Will you join me in praying that we, the church, would feel the calling to orphan care because we were once orphaned, hopeless, and adopted by our Abba Father instead of to receive the glory for ourselves?
