I heart U2 and Psalm 40. This psalm has been significant to me at 2 critical crossroads of Brian and my life together - moving from Chicago to California and throughout our journey to expand our family. This morning I found myself singing this song again, and thought I should post it. This is a "vintage" U2 video of "40" live from Red Rocks [kinda funny to see how young Bono and The Edge look]. Love it. It communicates such a longing of God's people for the new.
My mom sent me this passage the other day. "This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long..." (an old hymn from my childhood).
"...waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."
"Every child deserves someone to have someone to take a risk on them." My friend, Erin, shared that at our church's adoption meeting last Sunday, and immediate I had to stifle ugly crying. I was holding her foster-to-adopt son in my arms, thinking about our own 2 kiddos and their unknown stories, and just lost it.
Erin's right. EVERY CHILD deserves someone - especially Christians - to have someone risk something for them. No child deserves to be orphaned. No child deserves to be abandoned. No child deserves to live in abuse or malnutrition or poverty. But someone has to take a risk on their little lives in order for those wrongs to be righted and their stories changed.
Erin went on to passionately call us toward action, "God doesn't call us to protect our hearts. He calls us to risk and take a chance on someone who might not have anyone else to risk on their behalf." Truth. Someone has surely taken a chance on you - relationally, vocationally, financially. And after we take a risk, who knows what God might do with their life!??! When I think about our 2 Ethiopian kiddos, their little lives are already implicitly changing our lives...and we haven't even met them. And they deserve for us to take a chance on them. For better or worse.
Later last week, I saw this video about Apple founder, Steve Jobs. If you don't watch the whole thing, just watch the first few minutes.
Take a risk today.
GENERAL DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this site are April's alone and do not represent the views of any ministries or organizations in which she is affiliated. (I'm told this is important to say.)
Coaching and training leader to their fullest potential. Author of a youth worker book. Available for speaking to teenagers, youth workers, women, and churches.
