Game-Changer

This book....

was a game changer for me. 

I read it for the first time over four years ago.  Then I read it again.  And again.  In one week. 

The author, Beth, is an adoptive mom of nine who currently lives in Mexico caring for orphans.  

I love how she contrasted "refined faith," a term we most often hear in church, with her definition of "reckless faith"...

"Refined" can be defined as "cultivated" and "fastidious."  That kind of "refined faith" is the opposite of the Reckless Faith and I am writing about here. That sort of "refined  faith" is predictable and resistant to change; it pretends to know what God will do a hundred Sundays from now.  It is most comfortable with rules, consequences, and baby steps.  It likes control and people who agree.  It fears what it can't see.  A truly reckless faith, however, always expects change, and as a result, it's eager to risk more and fear less! A reckless faith knows there is more to the story, more we can't see, more than I experience now. It is hungry." 

She goes on to share about their lives in Mexico, caring for orphans and the families that had to give them up.  Her stories of faith were humbling and at the same time exhilarating. 

At this point in my life, four years ago,  I had been in full-time student ministry for years and was living fully on support of others as a missionary.  It was a job I loved and knew it was my calling for that time, yet in reading this book, something shifted in me.  I didn't know what to do with it.  But I kept saying to the other girls on staff, "I feel as though God is calling me out of my comfort zone..." 

I loved the book so much I recommended it to everyone and then lent it to someone.  I never ended up getting it back.  A few years went by and I ended up forgetting the name of the book, but I never forgot its impact on me. 

You can only imagine my excitement in the book store this past week when I found "Reckless Faith" staring back at me from the shelf! 

I read it again, amazed at where I am now in this crazy journey of adoption, and I can't help thinking about the route that God has taken to lead me here. 

I marvel at how He has used so many avenues to break through my fear of change and the unknown.  He has broken my heart for the fatherless.  And where as a few years ago, I may have found it a burden, I can now count it a privilege to advocate for the orphan. 

And I'm always up for recruiting more folks to join the cause for the orphan....  

I suggest you start with Reckless Faith.  But no, I'm not going to lend it to you.