The Story of Your Life

Life is precious, brief, and unpredictable. Your life is a journey with a beginning, a direction, a purpose, and a destination. You will have good and bad days. Some days are an emotional rollercoaster that include both joy and sorrow. Some seasons it will be difficult to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. God is working in every season. Do you trust Him?

As you live each day by faith, there is so much unknown. The questions are many: Where is God taking me? Where will the adventure end? What will God do next? How will God work this out? When will things be settled? Why is God doing this? As you cry out with honest and raw prayers, God is listening. He is working in your waiting.

The apostle Paul said that your life is “a letter from Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3). God is writing the story of your life. You may not see it or feel it, but He is working all things for your good and His glory. Be still, relax, let go, cease striving, and know that He is God. Trust Him as He continues to write the story of your life.

The Adoption Journey

My wife and I rejoice in our recent adoption. We sat in the courtroom and were handed the official decree of adoption. After 2 years and 7 months of transitions with foster homes, our daughter is an official member of our family. We ate cupcakes and rejoiced with officials and friends.

There are so many spiritual connections that we have seen in our adoption journey. As Christians, we have been adopted into God’s family. Each of us were previously enemies of God and alienated from his family. But through the love and mercy of Christ, we have been adopted into God’s family receiving all the blessings and benefits of his children. The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places (Psalm 16:6). We are full heirs of God’s rich inheritance.

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:4-7 NIV)

As a natural response of the great love we have received, we open our arms to the needs of others. The Bible tell us that true religion is “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Jesus says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me” (Matthew 18:5).

We live in a broken, needy world. Each of our gifts and callings are unique. What is the next step God is taking you to take? May we not waste our lives pursuing empty, fleeting pleasures. How we live today really matters. Let’s make every day count for the kingdom of God.

God is Working in Our Waiting

Every person who walks this earth will experience periods of waiting. One of the hardest aspects of life, the concept of waiting is frequently mentioned in the Bible. From the cradle to the grave, each of us will struggle with waiting.

What do we do in our waiting? Many of us will walk through stages of grief: anger, denial, and questioning God. As we lift up our desires, we hope, pray, and wonder when the answer will come. Not knowing the mind of God, we question whether the Lord is telling us no or to continue waiting. The apostle Paul asked God three times to remove the “thorn in his flesh.” As months and years go by, we wonder if it’s time to let go and move on.

My wife and I have been married nearly seven years. Marriage is wonderful, but the years of hardship we’ve experienced have been brutal. Most of our journey together has been bombarded with trials. We have faced job loss, near foreclosure, infertility, and years of waiting on an adoption match. When we finally got matched with a baby girl, we prepared her bedroom and enjoyed a baby shower with friends. But the adoption didn’t finalize. We sat in an empty bedroom and cried. Husbands and wives grieve differently, but the pain we share is felt to the core. I felt like I needed to be strong for my wife when all I wanted to do was fall apart.

In these difficult moments, if we are not careful, we can begin to question the goodness of God. The hymn writer William Cowper wrote the lyric, “Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.” As we dig into the Scriptures, we see that God is good, loving, and sovereign.

Our story is just beginning, and we rejoice in the daughter God has brought into our family. My wife and I can both say she was worth the wait. Our darkest days of waiting drew us closer to Christ and made our marriage stronger.

Dear friend, God is working in your waiting. You may not feel or see it, but He is working for your good and His glory. His plans are so much higher. Trust him. Waiting is hard, and some days are cruel. Lean into Jesus for your strength. He is sufficient and more than enough. In each season of life, God is working in our waiting.