John Piper, whose ministry Brad and I have greatly appreciated for years, is an adoptive parent. He and his wife Noel adopted a baby girl when most of their peers were retiring and becoming grandparents.
I stumbled upon Noel's blog recently and read their beautiful adoption story. At one point, she decided to write John a letter about her desire to adopt.
I can relate to this, as I know full well that conversations fueled with such passion can often end poorly. There is so much at steak when talking about issues we can so deeply about, so writing may be the best option. I know I think carfuly when bringing up adoption with Brad (and if I don't, I should) - not because he's not on board, but because we'd both say I'm a bit more passionate about it right now than he is. I could talk about it all day long, hence this blog!
We've decided to adopt but it's still something that makes my heart race and keeps me up at night (maybe God has called me to be an advocate?) and for him it's something he will prayerfully and happily do, minus the heart racing and night wakings (for now :)
and best of all,
here is his reply (when he says YES to adopting!)
Wow. That's quite a persuasive letter.
ReplyDeleteI love John's response as well.
Two things that stuck out to me (and that I want to remember, in making all life decisions):
1. "What matters is not that we do all we might have done or all we dreamed of doing, but that while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk in the path of love. The times are in God’s hands, not ours."
2. Trusting God in scary situations allows us to see how faithful he is; how sufficient he is.
"[Adopting] would actually cast us onto future grace in a way that would compel us to lay hold on God for more of himself that we would have otherwise known... this is the way God seems to be leading Noël; and to know more of God’s sufficiency is a precious thing."