Our Gift from God

Sometimes you run across a story that demonstrates God's love in a way that a theological explanation never could.  Today, on Spiritual Klutz, I'm featuring one of those stories from guest writer Evan Bell, author of the blog, Son in the Faith.  

If God's been nudging you to take a risk, to give more than you thought you had to give - read this article.  You may just walk away with the courage to follow Him down a path that will change your life forever.*

*Please note that, due to DHS regulations, photos of the face of the child featured in this article have been altered.

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My wife, Rachel, and I met Seth in May 2010 through some family friends, who were also his foster parents.  At that time, he was four-months old and unavailable for adoption - not that we were we looking to adopt anyway.  We babysat him for a few hours that day, took a few photos (see first photo to right), and later on, he went back home to his foster parents.

A few months later, we met again.  By chance, we went to the same restaurant where Seth’s foster parents were having dinner with my in-laws.  We were happy to see Seth, and we held him while they ate (see second photo to right, below).  While talking to his foster parents, we learned that he had suffered a life-threatening injury, and he was lucky to be alive. 

After seeing Seth at the restaurant and hearing what he had been through, we began praying for him.  We prayed for his health and that God would provide a home for him.  But still, he was not available - and besides, adoption wasn't even on the table.  At least that’s what we thought.

Is Jesus Disappointing?

This is a special, Good Friday edition of Spiritual Klutz.  Please offer a warm welcome to guest writer Tim Schultz, a dear friend and the author of the most popular post in Spiritual Klutz history.  Thanks, Tim, for taking the time to share these powerful thoughts on the message of Good Friday.

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Tim Schultz

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, He’s being praised by the crowds as a conquering king.  Within one week, the crowd has transformed into an angry mob calling for Jesus’ execution.  What happened?

I’ve always had a hard time connecting with this part of the Easter story.   Until recently, I couldn’t think of any modern examples of such mass emotional schizophrenia.  Even during Watergate, President Nixon didn’t suffer such a radical collapse in his approval rating.  And the people on his enemies list didn’t call for his execution.

Now, it occurs to me that we do have an example of a public figure whose approval rating recently went from 100-to-zero in about 3.2 seconds.  This man’s public career has even been branded with the messianic nickname “The Chosen One.”  I’m talking about NBA superstar LeBron James, who last year went from being the most popular man in Cleveland, Ohio to having his jersey publicly burned when he announced his decision to play for another team.

Garbage Pick-up from Heaven

Last week was painful for my wife and me.  In a span of 24 hours, life dealt us a couple of hard blows, and when it was over, we could hardly stand up.

Although I normally ride the bus, on Thursday I asked my wife to take me to work.  I felt stressed and wanted to spend a little more time with her and our baby.  She agreed to do so, and I agreed to feed the baby in the back seat.

We didn't get very far down the road before getting stuck behind a garbage truck.

"I don't understand why you took this street if you saw the garbage truck," I said.

"Yeah, well, I did," she said.