Dunlap Family Adoption

The Church at Brook Hills will always be a special place to us because it was our church home when we were in college.  I learned so much about God and the Bible during those years, and I’ll always be grateful for our time there.  I’m beyond excited about what God is doing there now, and I’m thankful for the leadership of their pastor, David Platt.  A couple of days ago I listened to a recent message of his, and I HIGHLY recommend listening to it if you’re at any point in the adoption process or if you’re considering adoption.  Click on the link above and navigate to their “Weekly Teachings” page.  Click on “Podcasts: Audio.”  The message is entitled “Chapter 15: Father to the Fatherless” and was released on April 24th.  Here are some of my favorite quotes.  It’s kind of a lot to read but so worth the time:

We need to realize that orphan ministry is distinctively and uniquely cross-driven.  This is very different from the way we talk about care for orphans in our culture and even in our church culture.  Care for orphans is not about humanitarianism.  It’s not driven by altruism.  I think that much of what is done in the name of caring for orphans in our culture and even sometimes in our church culture amounts to humanitarianism, altruism, and in many respects, desire for selfish gain.  Orphan care has become almost trendy in our day.  It’s cool to care for orphans.  We hear Brad and Angelina and Bono and Madonna and American Idol, and they all tell us to care for orphans.  So we’re tempted to jump on the bandwagon and help.

But here’s the problem.  What happens when the child you adopt is not cute?  What happens when he’s suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome?  What happens when she has a terminal disease that puts your other children at risk?  What happens when his mother was on crack and he was born with all kinds of delays and developmental problems and his teenage years become for you a nightmare?  What happens when you try to show love to her and she rejects you every single time?  What happens when the child you adopt is dangerous?  Mere altruism will NOT get you through that.  The only thing that will carry you through that is the cross of Jesus Christ.

It’s only at the cross that we realize that we were once in a pit of our own sin, uncontrollable in our own evil desires with absolutely nothing in us to attract Christ to us.  And yet, He pursued us, and He persevered in His pursuit of us.  In our constant rebellion, He pressed in, and with His patience and compassion and love, He continued to care for us.  And even then, we’re unfaithful, and we turn aside to our own ways.  When we see our own wickedness and realize what has happened at the cross and what God has done in our lives, then it makes total sense to love the unlovable and to care for the uncontrollable.  Now the cross radically transforms the way we love in this world.  Orphan care is not about loving the cute children that make life better for us.  It’s about loving the tough children that make life hard.

In light of our wickedness, we must realize that we are not rescuers.  We’re not a group of good, altruistic people out to be saviors for the orphans.  We must realize that WE are the rescued.  The cross is a reminder that we ALL need to be rescued.  We are not the rescuers.  JESUS is the rescuer.  When we realize that we were spiritual orphans, then it makes sense for us to care for orphans.  Now it makes sense that James 1:27 is a mark of true, Christ-centered religion.  It’s not possible to be a child of God and not have care for orphans.

And now we realize that the church must be leading the way in orphan care and care for children in need.  It’s not optional.  It just flows from the gospel.  As Christians, we hear the cries of children who cannot sleep at night because their stomachs are distended from hunger.  We hear the cries of babies in hospitals in the United States who are rocked at night by the nurses, babies who are addicted to cocaine because of what they received from their mom.  We hear the cries of teenagers in Eastern Europe who about to age out of the system and be put on the streets and into a life of prostitution or drugs if someone does not care for them soon.

If the point of orphan ministry is to bring kids into nice homes with nice stuff, we’ve missed the whole point.  We have not helped orphans at all.  Malaria kills, and we need to help children who are suffering and dying from malaria, but materialism also kills.  It’s dangerously deceptive in its ability to kill.  We bring them hope of a Father on high who defends and protects and provides for them and a Savior who pursues and rescues them.  THAT’S the hope we bring.  There’s not a child in the world, no matter how dark their past is, who is beyond the hope of Jesus Christ.  This is why we must do orphan care.