We are the Smiths. On Day 1 of the blog, there are 5 of us: Rod, Lisa, Jarrod (almost 23), Logan (21) and Parker (19). YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT! Our children are men. We got ‘em through high school, and they are plugging their way quite nicely through college now. They are men. Excellent men. Men who love the Lord and have determined in their hearts to be Christ followers. Men who, out of that love for the Lord, have been all over the globe in mission to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They go to school. They work. They have the most amazingly awesome friends, who are also adults.
THIS CAN ONLY MEAN ONE THING FOR ROD AND ME…….. WE DID IT!!!!!!!!! WE ARE DONE. FINISHED. READY FOR CRUISES, BEACH TRIPS, DO WHATEVER WE WANT WHENEVER WE WANT, WATCH HGTV AND TOP SHOT EVERY NIGHT FOR HOURS. WE CAN NEVER DO ANOTHER SPELLING LIST OR MATH PAGE OR POINTLESS SCHOOL PROJECT OR CHUCK E. CHEESE BIRTHDAY OR TOO HOT OR TOO COLD LITTLE LEAGUE GAME OR FUND RAISER AGAIN!!!!!! FREEDOM BABY!!!! WE ARE STILL HOPELESSLY IN LOVE AND WE ARE FREE!!!!
So in the Fall of 2010 , we started that wild and crazy lifestyle of the empty nesters. We saw every episode of Top Shot and together we voted on our favorite contestant. We watched House Hunters and House Hunters International every night. We read, we facebooked, we scoured magazines, we hopped in the car for no apparent reason and went to LoriBells’s for frozen custard, we strolled The Avenue, we ate out. A lot. We were FREE.
And in no time at all, we were dissatisfied. We were restless and uncomfortable in our spirits. In short, it wasn’t well with our souls. And if I can borrow a song line from Switchfoot, we knew that we knew that we knew “We were meant to live for so much more”. Mark Batterson says in his book “Primal”, “Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.” And Matt Redman says “Our Heavenly Father loves us with an extravagant abandon. Passionate, undignified worship is our only reasonable response.” So we talked and we prayed and we wrestled with God about what these truths must mean for us. All the while, I had been praying “break our hearts for what breaks Yours.” I prayed that a lot. For years, actually. I prayed for my heart and for the hearts of my guys. And here is a little tidbit: When you pray that prayer a lot, He will do it. And it hurts. It is really really painful and humbling when the Father begins to answer that prayer and your heart becomes sensitive to the hurt and sin and sorrow around you. But that’s what happened. And one day around January 2011, I told my sister in law “Please pray for us. I am certain that God is calling us in to the hard places. I can’t place my finger on it, but I am certain that Rod and I are being prepared to go to whole new places with God. And it won’t be easy.” And when I told this same thing to Rod one night, he simply said “I know”. The crazy thing is, it’s not like we were “back-slidden” or uninvolved in church (the things that most people consider the signs of a life going downhill). We were busy at church. Involved in the life and heartbeat of our precious congregation. Always have been. And we love it. It’s where we are when we are not at home or at work. Still, while many would consider this “enough”, it was not. It is not. God has called us to live a poured-out life, and it just wasn’t going to happen from our really comfy couch.
I found some things I had written in May 2011, after some of our ministry decisions had been confirmed. After we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had called our family into orphan ministry. After we had jumped in with both feet and told our families and friends and even written some checks to prove itJ.
No comments:
Post a Comment