If I could have Jesus sit at my kitchen table, I would love to ask him about the issue of "faithfulness". Every one of us would love to hear "Well done, good and faithful servant" on the other side. But what does faithfulness look like to Him? Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:14-30 through the parable of the talents. This is fascinating because His explanation here might not be what one would expect. Faithfulness is not just the typical "absence of doing wrong". Oh no...it's much more than that.

I love Dr. Thomas Constable's summation of this parable: "Faithfulness involves using what God has entrusted to one to advance His interests in the world. It involves making a spiritual profit with the deposit God has entrusted to each disciple."

So to unpack this a little....The master was going on a journey. While he was gone, he entrusted talents to 3 servants. A talent was a unit of exchange. 5 could be as much as a person in that time would make in a lifetime! Each servant got a different amount, according to their ability. Those who were given more were expected to gain more. What was true then is still true now, greater privilege means greater responsibility.

Immediately the slaves with 5 and 2 talents got to work. They took what they had and used it for the master's benefit. The third slave played it safe by burying the money. When the master came back, the first 2 were commended with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." The last slave didn't fare so well. The master had entrusted something of His, and this slave had not done with it as the master expected. He wasn't willing to risk. He played it safe, and as a result accomplished nothing for his master's benefit. In the end, he lost not only the talent but also joy in his master's presence.

So comparisons are pretty easy here. The master is God. He has put within all of our hands different talents....some more, some less but all expected to be used to build His kingdom and not our own. What would talents be for us? Here again, I defer to Dr. Constable: "We should understand the talents to be all the working capital that God entrusts to His disciples. To limit the talents to spiritual gifts, natural abilities, the gospel, opportunities for service, money or whatever, limits the scope of what Jesus probably intended. All of these things constitute what God has given His servants to use for His glory."

*Faithfulness involves understanding that all we have is His, and that it is working capital we use to build His kingdom.

*Faithfulness is willing to trust God and take risks with those things. To do that means we must walk by faith and not by sight.

It's unfortunate when people think that faithfulness in their Christian experience is a focus on staying away from the "thou shalt not's". They want to play it safe like the third slave. That's not the way to have a great impact with the life we've been given. God has the most exciting, purposeful life planned for each one of us...and it involves advancing His kingdom by using what He has put into our hands. Faithfulness is putting that to work for Him. It's risky and it requires great trust. But it's a ride like no other....

Nobody's Coming

The last thing we want is for this blog to be all about our family and our little adopted orphan. But the things coming out of Collins' mouth these days are profound, and are a driving force as we put one foot in front of the other to accomplish the mission of Orbie for Orphans.

I'm not a person who cries, but I'm crying as I type this. My husband just held me as I let it out, and before that I spent 15 minutes bawling my eyes out in the shower. Tonight was like any other night. I was putting Collins to bed. Got an idea from a friend to have each of us think of something that we could thank Jesus for before we said bedtime prayers. I told Collins that mine was going to be that she had the incredible experience today of taking a plant and a card to an elderly friends home that just got a cancer diagnosis. On her turn she said, "I fank (thank) Jesus that in China you came. Mommy, I worried you not come! I worried Mommy and Daddy not come!" We talked it about it a little, I kissed her goodnight, and then ran to the shower to release the pain inside. Approximately 153 million orphans. Less than 1% of that number adopted each year. The pain I could imagine my child felt, worrying that we weren't coming TIMES MILLIONS. And guess what? Chances are...nobody IS coming.

That is the very reason we started Orbie for Orphans, and that is the very reason we are asking everybody we know to help us do this. A child that has nobody, and will get nobody....needs to be reached with the truth that "Thee Somebody" is with them. This is the One that will never leave them or forsake Him. The Great I AM. The One that loves them the most, and the only One that can heal them and give them hope for the future.

I've moved way beyond being "worried" about asking people to give to our organization. This is for orphans who are "worried" that nobody is coming. I'm getting courageous because I'm asking for children who have nobody.

2 nights ago we were going to Conner's basketball game and I asked Collins if she was going to sit with the cheerleaders like she normally does. She said she'd rather sit with us. She said, "I'm away from you too long." I said, "No, we've been together all day." She said, "Mommy, in China I'm away from you too long!" Last night, when I asked her what she wanted to thank Jesus for she got a huge grin on her face and said, "A BIG family!" She went from nobody, the big ZERO, to parents, 2 brothers, grandmothers, cousins, aunts and uncles....It blows her mind. When we started this whole adoption journey, we wanted a 2-3 year old. I can see why there was a much better plan. A child who spent ages 2-5 in an orphanage could tell us what it was like being an orphan. After having her 16 months, all those feelings are finally being expressed. It's heart-wrenching, but it compels us. Her pain and the love of Christ compel us to get the message to these kids that Somebody came 2000 years ago just for them. "Even if my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take me in." Psalm 27:10