Foster Care Reflections: There Is Only An Us

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.Hebrews 4:12

The WORD has truly been my undoing. As if you pulled a loose thread from a tapestry and continued to pull until it lay in piles of colored thread on the floor; unrecognizable from its original beauty all intricately woven together with skill and precision. There had settled in me a comfort in where I was in my faith and, in that, I grew fearful. I began to recognize that my American Christianity did not line up to Kingdom Christianity in so many ways. There was a division, an imbalance. My mission field was clashing with my home turf. I was coming undone...and I hadn't gone anywhere. 

God was branching me out-to hold more, to reach more, to see more. I could not remain who I was and become who I will be. 

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. Philippians 3:7-9

There is only us.

 The two greatest commands tell us 1) it's ALL about God and 2) it's about "the us". There is no room for me, there is only us. When we read Bible stories we often zero in on the main character and overlook the fact that there is an entire society around them. The stories are meant to spotlight an individual's story within the group not a group of individual's stories. We read it wrong because that's how we live, as individuals. This individual thinking makes it hard for us to comprehend the importance of biblical language on such things as family and honor. We struggle to understand the importance and application of it all and so we skip most of it. We break it down to 5 min devotionals and just our favorite books and we leave the rest because, seriously, Deuteronomy?? But it's because we don't understand the context, the culture, or the big "WHY"!?

What I'm learning is that I need to adjust my eyes, my thinking, and my heart to a counter-cultural way of being. What's more, this applies to bridging families in foster care. I've said numerous times how we are like a culture all our own and this fully applies! You see, in foster care, there is no me or you either, there is only an us. WE all LOVE the children so much that we must have the same goal and so there absolutely, positively, no way around it, has to be an US. There is no room for me. There is no room for you. There is no room for individualistic preferences.

There is so much to unpack here that I will be writing several posts on this; I simply cannot put it all clearly and fully into one. Here are some things I will be addressing in the future posts:

We often tell each other for encouragement, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jerm. 29:11, as if this is a promise to each of us individually, but it doesn't say that. He said that to those He was exiling as a promise that He would eventually bring them back. Some did not make it back, some even got left behind, and the King had his eyes cut out after watching his sons be murdered right in front of him. Obviously, it didn't seem to work out so good for everyone. The 'you' is an everybody 'you'. Would you still faithfully follow Christ even if the only promise you had meant that the "plans to prosper" was for the WHOLE Body and not for you personally? What if the 'promise' was not to be fulfilled in your lifetime, would you still follow?

We teach Jesus loves ME. God made ME. God sent His son for ME. The Bible is a love story for ME. I am special and I am unique. The only problem is that we all grew up thinking I am the center of God's universe instead of the other way around. In an individualistic society, we just assume that everything is about ME (after all that's what we've heard in every single Bible story as far back as we can remember). Yet, that's not the way it was written. Do you treat God as the center of your universe or as if You are the center of HIS? Do we even really know what idolatry means? 

As God continues to grow me through the process, I am humbled and grateful that I get to share it will all of you. I am thankful that you all come along for the journey and I hope you are all growing too. We are an US. Continue to encourage and pray for each other!