The Place for Faith

Yesterday in our Sunday school class we were discussing money and margin. Spending less than you make, to put it simply. And, as it was church, it came to having more to give. There was a fascinating conversation happening for the people bothering to listen. What Giving is. Where Giving should go. Where the church fits into Giving. And I have to give props to my teacher who is also my pastor who welcomed legitimate opinions regarding this, and quite a weighty conversation it was.

At this point in the conversation, one of our classmates gestured at Brent and me and said something like, "I mean, look at them. They are contributing what I assume is a great deal of money to take a child into their home. I would consider that giving."

Wherein my pastor started in on his take of our current situation, which boiled down to us living within margin well enough that we could swing this adoption financially...and was cut off by a guy who asked, "Where's there room for faith in that?!"

Where's the room for faith in that?

Let me point out the fact that none of the people as yet talking about us actually know our financial situation. I suspect YOU don't know our financial situation. Even at the end of this post, none of you will know our financial situation. As far as I know, I have told exactly zero people how we are paying for this adoption. But my point here is that Lance didn't know HOW we were paying for the adoption when he indicated it as giving. Brian didn't know how we were paying for the adoption before he indicated that we were probably reaping the benefits of living within margin. And for goodness sake, Shall-Remain-Nameless doesn't know if we are taking a leap of financial faith or not. Just because he doesn't read about us in the paper, does that mean we aren't walking in faith?

And since I was never again given the chance to speak and tell him, you will get my response:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

You wanna know where my faith is in this? Let me tell you. Faith is knowing for the last five years that my little girl was out there. Faith is watching for her on photolistings even when we had no money. Faith is believing in your broke months that you will one day have money in the bank to adopt again.  Faith is believing that you will find the daughter you have been longing for (that also fits into very specific criteria, in our case "brown, age 6"). And faith is knowing her when you see her. Faith recognizes that it is no coincidence that you "just happen" to have some money in the bank on the same day you commit to adopting her (when you commit to a waiting child, you are expected to immediately pay approximately half the money up front). Faith is recognizing the provision when the house on which you have a contracted, agreed upon price, "just happens" to drop by approximately the cost of your adoption (yes, it is spread out over 30 years, but still) less than 24 hours after you drop the check in the mail. 

*and this is where my computer sharing with my daughter wreaked havoc with my blog post which was eloquent and poetic and very meaningful, but alas, did not save and has been lost in the abyss*
Some people are called to adopt when they have absolutely NO IDEA how they are going to pay for it. Kudos to them. If you are one of those people, good for you. Take the leap of faith. I applaud you. I hope people give you lots of money.

But I don't believe that one should downgrade faith that follows a different process. Faith can also be saving for the child you don't yet know of. Shoot, faith can be adopting WITHOUT giving up on the idea of ever being pregnant. *ahem* (Why yes, I do know a little something about that.) Faith is continuing on your adoption journey when every-stinking-thing breaks and outstanding invoices go unpaid. Faith can see past and over the hurdles to the final destination. Faith is figuring it out....anyway.

Thank you, Jehova Jirah, my provider.

Where is there room for faith in that?

You must be kidding.