Never the Same

I hate spiritual hype. Experiences are great and excitement is good, but if the end result is the same as before the experience, it is a waste of emotion to me. I don't want to go to a great service and get all pumped up like at a pep rally if ultimately tomorrow I will be the same person. I want to experience God in all his fullness and leave changed. So this week our youth are at church camp and my prayer for them is "Never the same, Lord. Never the same in you." Great things can happen at church camp, but often there is so much hype, the "change" experienced is based on something that isn't real so when you return home, every thing is the same. Not this year. I am expecting God to change them in a way that is so real they will never be the same. Speaking of change, I have been undergoing a makeover of sorts myself. I don't know how many of you know me apart from this blog, but I am not the same person I used to be. Three years ago I unknowingly started a journey I never intended to walk on. But God knew all along that I needed it. I needed my faith to be tested. And I have learned with my heart, with the core of my being, all the things I knew in my head to be true of God. Faithful. Compassionate. Loving. Provider. Friend. Father. And the journey isn't over yet. He is stretching me in ways I never wanted to be and I'm loving every moment of it. God is just so good. And in case you don't follow me or B.J on facebook, today we were selected to adopt a sibling group of three kids. Honestly, I am in shock. It's just been so long waiting, it's hard to believe now that we finally see what God's plan is (or kinda understand a piece of his plan anyways). And at the same time I am not surprised. Because I know my God, I kinda saw this coming. In November I really thought these were our kids, so we submitted for them and never heard anything back. It was okay. They were the first kids that really seemed to fit what we wanted for our family. And then in the spring we got involved with foster kids who we hoped to adopt and that didn't pan out. But God was teaching us. He was letting us get some experience with kids with similar needs as ours, we just didn't know it. And God brings everything full circle by bringing our kids back to us. It's a story of completion and redemption, showing me that He knows exactly what He is doing. (Why do we ever doubt him?) Now the only thing between us and our kids is us. In the next couple of weeks, we will get to see their files which contain everything CPS knows about our kids and their case. Honestly, there is not much that we can read about these kids that will deter us from adopting them. I can't speak for B.J. but I KNOW this is right where we are supposed to be. I asked Mala what happened between when we first submitted for these kids and when we got the broadcast again in late July and why it seemed like they were just hanging in the system for six months. Before she told me the details, she said, "Because they are your kids." Yeah, I don't care what the details are or how someone wants to explain it away. I call it God. And He is faithful!