God of the IMPOSSIBLE

This is my life. My REAL life. People ask me sometimes, "No way that is real right? You do know how to tell a story though!" Let me tell you, as I fall onto my bed at the end of the night, I look up at the sky amazed and wonder, "No way is this real, right?" Yes. It is. Even those closest to me sometimes voice their disbelief, "How is that POSSIBLE?!" Most of the time, I really don't believe it either. Sometimes I pinch myself to make sure I am awake. I am. Yes, it is happening. 11 children. Then 7 abandonned. Then one taken, then brought back. Then 4 burn victims. In the last 3 weeks we have added almost 75 children to our program. When I go to serve lunch, I have to take a new head count EVERY day, just to make sure I have the number right. Its happening.

As I lay in bed in disbelief at the end of another beautifully exhausting day, I marveled with God as the "impossible" things that happen in my life. And I realized, when have you ever read a story of God's great movement that made a lot of sense? That didn't seem a little over the top, a little impossible? Not often. Radical, extraordinary love just doesn't make sense in a fallen world. That doesn't mean it can't happen. But it is the very nature of God. Moses parted the Red Sea, and I bet people thought, "No way this is happening!" Noah spent 120 years building an ark and I bet people thought he was just crazy. When Joshua went to Jericho, God told him to march around the city once for six days and seven times on the seventh day with seven priests blowing tumpets made of rams horns. I bet Joshua didn't think that made much sense. I bet Abraham didn't think it made a whole lot of sense when God ask him to kill the son of whom He had promised would come nations. Jesus told His disciples to pass out five loaves of bread and 2 fish to over 5,000 people and I bet they looked at Him like He was crazy! Later, Jesus told Peter to walk to Him on the water through a storm and I know that Peter was afraid.

We read these stories and think that they are awesome examples of God's amazing power and love and yet sometimes we don't really believe that they could still be possible. We think that maybe Moses, Abraham, Joshua, Noah or the disciples had something we don't. But I don't think that is true, God is the SAME yesterday, today, always and we were ALL created in His own image. This means that all these impossible things could just as easily happen for US too! Radical, different, extraordinary... It still exists!

So for those of you who read this and say, "No way," that's ok. Because I live it, and still every time a new child shows up at my door with an even greater need than the last I think "no way." But here is the thing - I want big things from God. We want big things from God and then think its strange when He asks us to build an ark, or feed 5,000 or march around a building for seven days with seven priest blowing trupets made of the horns of a ram. I am asking for big things from God. Big things like a van I can take my whole family to church in and a house with ten showers for Friday. BIGGER things like 147 million orphaned children in the world to EACH have a mommy who knows what he likes for dinner. So really, I am not so surprised at the crazyness. Every morning as I wake up with some impossible ask in front of me, I know that God will meet it with impossible strength and love. I serve the God who used Moses, a murderer, to part the Red Sea, a God who let Peter, who would deny Him, walk on water. A God who looks at me, in all my fallen, broken weakness, and says YOU can do the impossible.


This post is dedicated to my dear friends Phil and Amy who know what it is to do the impossible, loving their sweet baby boy extraordinarily, sharing his life with many, and recently watching him be taken to Heaven. They allowed God to use Dylan's life to minister to so many. They are a constant example to me and all who know them of how love extravagantly, like Christ.

To Gwen and Suzanne, whose lives are almost as impossible as mine. To Gwen who loves, prays over, and mothers babies that will not be hers until they find a forever family, and shows extraordinary, impossible strength in doing so. And to Suzanne who is a CONSTANT peaceful ecourager, offering quiet and kind words.

To Mike and Uncle Denny who have both been resilient in battling cancer and have been impossibly good natured and continually supportive, offering me so much love, even in their hurting.

To the Minovich family, who I am so excited for, as they bring home not one or two, but FOUR new children and continue to offer their home to this dream of helping the orphans.

To Candace and Dave Able who proabably never have time to read this as they parent more children than I can count. You are the hand of Christ. Sometimes I feel like my life is difficult, and then I remember the wonderful weekend I spent in your home and think that my life doesn't come close to the difficulty that you meet with such strength and love each day.

To my mom and dad who are extraordinarily supportive of all my crazyness, who have loved me SO UNCONDITIONALLY and who have taught me how to love every person I meet with big, real love. None of this is possible without you.




Keep doing impossible things. As God asks you for more, He continues to meet each need with impossible strength, energy, and love.