heavy heart for addis.

recently, my heart has been heavy for ethiopia all over again.

my brother just got back from a trip to ethiopia with buckner international. the lord is using buckner to do some incredible things in that country. it's absolutely beautiful. please check out his blog for more pictures and stories.

i was at a convention earlier this week for texas baptists. while working the booth for truett seminary, i noticed a mom walking by pushing a stroller that held the cutest girl i've ever seen. i was instantly drawn to the little one. she was stunning for a 17-month-old. while tickling her feet and trying to make her laugh, i couldn't help but think she looked ethiopian. even more crazy, i couldn't help but think she looked familiar. long story short: sweet little maya was in buckner's baby home in ethiopia when i was there in august!! she just got adopted in september. i remember the caretakers telling us that her new parents were coming just a few short weeks after we left. isn't that incredible?! a little girl that stole my heart in addis ababa, ethiopia, captured it again in houston, texas. i also met a man that is in the process of adopting a little boy i saw in the baby home. here's a picture of the two little ones playing together in august:

the little boy in the middle is the one being adopted, and sweet maya's on the right. i wish you could see her face. isn't it crazy to think that those 2 little ethiopians are now texans?! i love it. adoption is such a beautiful thing--not because it's trendy and cool and philanthropic, but because it's such an incredible picture of our relationship with god. also, as believers, i think we should almost see it as a duty or a responsibility. there's really no excuse for us to allow there to be 143 million orphans in the world.

pray for ethiopia. and pray for more families to feel the call to adopt.

prayer.

i was asked to give the benediction at truett's chapel service this week. i'm not one to be easily intimidated, but for someone who doesn't really understand prayer, the idea of praying in front of fellow students and renowned ph.D.s made me a little nervous. i thought about using a liturgical prayer, but i just wasn't comfortable with that. i wanted to sound scholarly and eloquent, but i couldn't get christ's words in matthew 6.5 out of my mind.

all of that to say, i decided to write my own prayer. it's certainly nothing profound, but it's definitely honest and pertains to questions i wrestle with daily. just thought i'd share it with you.

pray with me.

god, we want to know what it means to love you today, and we recognize that part of loving you is obeying you. so thank you that your commandments are not burdensome, but life-giving, as they force us to depend on you.

god, we want to know what it means to know you today, because we recognize that all else pales in comparison to the surpassing worth of knowing you as lord. so may we count all else as loss in order that we may be found in you.

so give us strength today to love you, even when we're not sure we trust you, and to know you, even when we may not feel you.

and now may your peace, which is far beyond anything we can understand or comprehend, guard our hearts and our minds in you today.

amen.