Crazy is uncomfortable. We in suburban America like safe and normal. There are social penalties to doing things that rock the boat. You get talked about and people say things like, “Bless your heart,” which when translated from Christianese means, “You’re an idiot!”
I’ve discovered that when you tell someone that you’re going to adopt an orphan teenager they usually try to talk you out of it. Go ahead, try it for yourself and see how people respond. People will tell you that you’re putting your family in danger. They’ll tell you horror stories of adoptions that were so bad that the parents tried to send the kids back. They’ll tell you that you don’t have enough money. They’ll tell you that older orphans are irreversibly damaged.
I understand that one of the key functions of good community is to help us process decisions and uncover blind spots in our thinking. Our community and family helped us immensely in these ways during our adoption process. In fact, every family member and close friend immediately or eventually supported our adoption which helped confirm our decision. And yet, outside of our inner circle, I could sense immense skepticism and discomfort.
Christians in the West—specifically, suburban mega-church American Christians like me–have replaced normal with abnormal. In the early church, crazy was normal. The first generations of Jesus followers were known for extraordinary acts of compassion and love.
Throughout the ancient Roman world, human life was not valued. Unwanted babies were left to die in “baby dumps” outside the city gates. The early Christians opposed this practice and were known to rescue these babies and raise them as their own.
When plague struck Caesarea in the early 4th century everyone who could fled the city. However, the Christian community stayed behind and put themselves at risk to care for the sick and dying. The sacrificial love of the early Christians is well documented. We could tell stories for days.
Throughout history, when Christianity has been at its best, it has been characterized by radical compassion and sacrificial love. It has never been by any other influence that Christianity has spread and become stronger. However, when Christians get comfortable we lose our influence (Andy Stanley has spoken powerfully about this phenomenon).
My point is this: attempting to adopt a child who is at risk of sex trafficking should be considered normal behavior for Christians. But instead, normal has become comfort and luxury. We love to talk about sacrificial love but we rarely act in sacrificial love. And please understand I’m talking about myself as much as anyone else. It took 17 years of following Jesus before I ever acted on radical compassion and sacrificial love. I’m not exactly the poster boy for my argument.
The thing is, stepping out in faith and actually doing something crazy in the name of Jesus has been exhilarating. My faith has exploded and God has met me and my family in so many ways. Maybe it’s because that kind of love can only come from the heart of God.
So if your faith is stuck, find a place to serve. Give something away. Get more involved in a ministry at your church or a local mission. Support a child through Worldview or Compassion International or start looking into adoption. By loving sacrificially your faith will grow and so will the influence of the church of Jesus Christ
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihhinsaniyardimvakfi/
