Plans?!!

It was a fair question. 

 

While enjoying a wonderful early Thanksgiving meal with the kids’ family, their grandmother asked me what our plans were for the children.  I had no good answer, and I have been thinking a lot about the question ever since. 

 

She said that she was wondering if we had any regrets.  That’s a much simpler question; these are now our children as much as Samantha and I can’t even imagine regretting that for a minute.  I am thoroughly in love with all of my family.  But, “plans”? 

 

I can’t plan past today.  We are in over our head.  “Mice and men” look like strategic geniuses compared to Mel and me most days.  Still, I have never felt closer to God.  In fact, as a result, I have never been closer to God.  

 

I have some daily goals:  yell less, praise more; scold less, correct more; punish less, discipline more; love more, love more.  Each day, I have little successes and big failures.  But every day I thank God for the challenges and joys of parenting four children.  Each day, I thank God for the church family we can lean on for support and encouragement.  Each day, I thank God for a biological family that is as interested in healing the broken hearts of these children as much as we.  Each day, I thank God for my family that has reached out to love these kids without reservation. And each day, I thank God for my wife, who never realized what she was getting us into and is learning to rely on strength beyond her own. 

 

I have some broader goals:  I want our children to realize that life is not “all about them”; that it is “all about God.  I want them to get the best education that they can, because it helps them establish a paradigm that is outward looking.  I want them to know the peace and security of two loving parents in a home that is structured and overflowing in love.  And I want them to know Christ and the power His resurrection gives us every day. 

 

Ultimately, I just want a front row seat in seeing the plans God has for our family. 

 

Job 42:2

 

 “I know that you can do all things;
       no plan of yours can be thwarted.”

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

Agape—or at least the best I can do,

Chris

An Open Letter to Christian Facebook Users

 

 I enjoy using Facebook.  As a teacher, it allows me to stay connected with former students and communicate with current ones in an open forum.   As a youth ministry leader, it gives me another way to be involved as a mentor with our young people.  As a Christian, Facebook adds another way for me to reach out to those who may be open to the message of Christ, and to fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Him.  The potential for good in this application I believe far outweighs the negatives; and that is why I maintain a page in the network.  Still, this networking program, like any other, has serious risks for the individual Christian and the Body of Christ.  Following is an incomplete list of potential hazards to those who would represent Christ on this earth (and on the internet).

 

First, although Facebook is a great forum for friendly and godly conversation and fellowship, it is also an exceptional tool for gossip and division.  People have the ease of flowing from wall conversations (open to scrutiny) to private messages (safe from onlookers), and therefore can easily fall into a trap of saying one thing publicly and quite another privately.  This is of course a hazard of any group dynamic, but Facebook facilitates it intrinsically.  In addition, innocuous conversations between friends of the opposite sex become fodder for some to allege impropriety. 

 

Secondly, although the openness and public nature of Facebook can foster accountability, it also can contribute to voyeurism.  You must be willing to scrutinize yourself on this when necessary.  If you spend more time looking at others’ conversations than participating in your own, this is likely a problem.  If your tendency is to search others’ walls for signs of impropriety, Facebook is likely a bad choice for you.  If you can’t avoid jumping to conclusions, skip out instead. 

 

Of course, Facebook wouldn’t attract voyeurs if it wasn’t also a great facilitator of impropriety in the first place.  Facebook allows for all of the dangerous traps of internet chat rooms, without all the social prohibitions.  Internet affairs can easily start with harmless streams of wall posts that progress to private conversations over time.  Again, you must be willing to discern your own motives and actions.  Just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t out to get you; and just because you may be the subject of malicious gossip doesn’t mean that you don’t have to hold yourself accountable for maintaining your integrity. 

 

I have personally witnessed the devastation that gossip, infidelity, dissension, hypocrisy, and betrayal can have on all sides inside and outside of the Body of Christ. Facebook is, at its heart, simply another means by which we can develop the best—or the worst—aspects of our character as His Church. 

 

Agape–or at least the best I can do,

 

Chris