High Stakes

Most of you know that our family was built by God. He has a wonderful sense of humor! When we married, we were empty nesters in our late 40s and early 50s. We didn't expect to raise any more children. We were done being in-house parents.

Then came a phone call from our granddaughter's social worker. (We didn't even know she had one!) The social worker asked us to consider taking our 2 year old granddaughter as a foster child, with the possibility of adopting her. We felt too old. We were assured we were not. We felt too busy, but we weren't.

We prayed. She came. She stayed. Forever. It's been a delight to raise her to her teen years! We look forward to the short time we have left with her in our home as a minor. She is a wonderful young adult, and I love the fact that I get to be her grandma-mom forever!

About three years ago, our granddaughter was getting old enough we could leave her alone for short periods of time. It was such a joy to be able to go out running and walking together as a couple! We relished the growing independence for her and for us.

Then came a phone call. Asking us if we would take two tiny Apache boys "for a few days" so that the social worker here could find a Jicarilla family to take them longer term. We reminded the social worker that we were white. They said it's okay. We reminded the social worker that we were old (in our 50s for real, now). They said it was fine.

We prayed. They came. They stayed. Forever. We did not anticipate raising kids more than 50 years younger than we are, but God has called us to this. He will give us the endurance and wisdom to do it for Him.

Today, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the tribe having a more than 300% increase in cases in the past couple of weeks, the tribal president sent out a memo to the community. In it, the consequences for Native Americans breaking the health orders was laid out. And so were the consequences for Non-Native Americans (us, minus the boys): Immediate expulsion from the reservation.

I totally agree with these consequences. The Jicarilla Apache have suffered from diseases brought by outsiders, and they deserve to protect their people and their land. I have no hesitations about their rights or reasons to make the consequences so dire. And I intend to follow every letter of this order.

But my heart is in my stomach because the stakes are so very high. If we disobey the health orders, even accidentally, the tribe has every right to remove us from their land. We have heard stories of occasional white people getting kicked off the rez. We have always been law-abiding guests of the Jicarilla, recognizing our status as guests.

The knots in my stomach come from what would happen to the boys, now 5 and 7, if we were excluded from the reservation. They are technically wards of the court (the Jicarilla court), and if we were told to leave, it would most likely be without the boys. Requiring them to move to yet another home. Which we've promised we would not do to them, if it is within our power.

High Stakes.

But not as high as the stakes in having faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Those are forever high stakes. Those are eternal high stakes. If my stomach is in knots at the thought of messing up and having to leave two of our children behind, my stomach should be in complete flip-flops when I consider my faith in Jesus Christ, or my children's faith in Jesus Christ.

But my stomach isn't flip-flopping over faith. Is it because I don't care???

No! Absolutely not. I care very much. But, while following the health orders on the reservation is something I have to do on my own (and my family has to do each on his/her own), faith is a gift of God. Look at Ephesians 2:8! "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

God is doing the heavy-lifting in faith. He gives faith to me. I can depend on him. His faithfulness to me is eternal and supreme. There is no need for anxiety about faith. About grace. About whether I'm measuring up.

Thank God!

I Challenge You, Two.

Christian, what is God's greatest commandment?

To love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. I doubt that any Christian would ever question the first commandment. I think every Christian would agree that we are to love God. Wholeheartedly. Forever. And I believe that most Christians would say they love their neighbors. They donate. They volunteer. They contribute. But I want you, Christian Brother or Sister, to take a deeper look.

The exact words of this commandment from the Bible (from three different translations) are:

          "A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (NLT)
          "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (KJV)
          "And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (NIV)

My challenge is this: Are there any qualifications as to which neighbor you are supposed to love?

I see none. I see no exceptions to "love thy neighbor." Do you? There is nothing in the commandment that indicates we should hate our transsexual neighbor, our Black neighbor, our White neighbor, our gay neighbor, or any other neighbor. I see no indication that we should only love our neighbors who live like we do, think like we do, or act like we do. None. Do you?

When Jesus spoke these words, he gave no qualifiers. If the God of the universe says we are to love our neighbor and doesn't limit which neighbor to love, how on earth can we humans justify limiting which neighbors we love? People do not have to pass a theological litmus test to be our neighbors, to be loved! That's what God says: Love every neighbor.

What about those with whom we disagree? Do we have to love them?  Of course we do. Jesus said to love our neighbor. No qualifiers. None. So, yes, we have to love those on the opposing sides of disagreements. Loving them doesn't mean agreeing with them. This is the greatest piece of my challenge to you, Christian.

God hates sin. Jesus hated the sin he saw in his neighbors that He loved. But Jesus loved the sinners. God has very clear boundaries about sin, and He hates every border crossing that we make. But Jesus Himself is proof to His followers that God loves the sinners. Romans 5:8 makes this crystal clear: "...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

So, Christian, I challenge you to dig deep into yourself and ask if you are behaving in a loving way to your neighbors. All of your neighbors. Are you loving your neighbors who demonstrate your pet peeve of sins? Are you loving your neighbors without exception? It is not our job to judge, it is our job to love.

So, love, Christian, love. Love deeply, completely, generously, and without exception. And when you have a conflict with someone, disagree with love. Treat your opponent with love. Respond with love. Not agreement. Not conciliation without regard to your own beliefs. But with love because that's what Jesus told us to do.

This Broken World

I would be surprised if we could find anyone in the entire world today that would disagree with this: The world has lots of problems. As a Christian, I call the world broken. From coronavirus and quarantines to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor to the destruction of property and rain forests, this world is a mess. 

The broken world is one I love. I love its mountains and oceans, its human and animal inhabitants. All of which I am somewhat cut-off from right now. We should be preparing for a long-awaited visit from cousins this month, but these visits have been canceled due to coronavirus precautions. Next month, we were supposed to go back to the Midwest to see our parents, some of our siblings, our children, and our grandchildren. Canceled.

We usually are hiking and kayaking at least once a week by now, but Colorado has put limitations on their open space and the tribe has asked us not to travel off-reservation except for essential business. Our teenager, instead of hanging out with her friends at NYPUM (National Youth Project Using Motorcycles), is hanging out at home with her family. Our little guys are not participating in the Jicarilla Department of Youth programs, learning their language and culture with their friends; instead they are playing in their yard (which is awesome with a ninja warrior obstacle course, tons of space to ride their bikes, and sprinklers to keep them cool).

This world is broken in the best of times. It is certainly shattered right now. So what do we do? What does a Christian do in a broken world? 

The same thing Christians do in all times: Speak Life. 

We speak to God's goodness and power and grace. God has provided for our family in so many ways! We have joyfully received donations of food and drink. We have been blessed with enough money to pay for the more-expensive groceries. Our children are all handling quarantine with grace. It's not easy, but they are finding happiness in our everyday experiences.

We speak faithfully of God's provision. We tell others about how worried we were for our mission partners in India. They have over 30 people in their household right now, including orphans and Bible teachers! The coronavirus cases are exploding in their area, so they are mostly staying inside. We talk about how we've prayed for their food needs...feeding 30 people is no easy task, especially when shortages of all foodstuffs have raised prices to double and triple normal costs. And then we receive some "extra" money from the government or from skype-tutoring and are able to send our tithe to India to help feed this mission group. 

We reach out to those in our own backyard. There are many people who walk through the church property to reach other parts of town here in Dulce. We have always prayed for/with these people. We frequently have provided meals for these neighbors. And we continue to do these things. A friend (knowing that we do these things) recently sent over 40 cloth masks for us to give away. So when someone knocks at the door requesting a meal, we can provide a mask for them to wear to protect others (including us) from disease. We put together some food and drink for those who are hungry, and then we pray together (6 feet apart) before they leave. 

We reach out to those farther away. All of our friends and relatives are in this same broken world as we are. Some of them are struggling with the isolation of coronavirus and some are struggling with the pain of repeated violence toward Black lives. Our black and brown friends and family are suffering from anxiety and depression at much higher rates since George Floyd's murder and the ensuing protests. We can text our farther-away friends and family to encourage them. We can telephone them to check in. We can have something caring delivered to them. We can mail them cards, drawings, photos, etc. We can reach out on social media to uplift. We can pray for them regularly. 

We are not helpless. Our help comes from the Lord! He is never without power. His grace is unending. His love overflows our need. He will provide. Always. In all ways. 

Let me say that again.

He will provide.

Always.

In all ways.

Amen.