The Phil Files

I had to restrain myself!

When I drove past the children’s home and saw a news truck, reporter, and camera focused inside the grounds, I had to make myself keep driving. My instinct was to pull over and park my old Tahoe in front of the camera and block their view.

I guess I’m old enough to have seen enough wars, political maneuvers, famines, and idealistic religious movements to know that the children always suffer first, longest, and worst when things go wrong in our world. This time, all the media fuss was over a number of children arriving at a children’s home. These children had been removed by Texas Child Protective Services from the YFZ polygamist sect in Eldorado — CNN has several stories on this and I’ll link you to them because they do not talk about our situation.

I’ll leave it for someone else who knows the firsthand facts to wade through all the DNA evidence, charges of child abuse, pre-teen forced marriage, polygamy and other details about charges. Regardless of the merits or the facts in this case, the children are caught in the middle. Their world, their sense of security, their understanding of family, and their sense of safety have all been turned upside down and sideways. They’ve been taken from the homes they knew to places they had never seen and asked to mesh into families they have never known.
To me, it seemed like a huge intrusion of privacy and safety for a news station to show footage of their arrival on the evening news — even though it was grainy and taken at a great distance. In addition, this media exposure is a potential risk of safety of those who give foster care and other children in foster care with those families. While I am all about public openness in government in most situations, the care of children should trump everything else.

So this leads me to one question and one request:

• Do you think I’m being too hard-headed about this, or do you agree that we don’t sufficiently protect children caught in the middle of adult messes?
• Would you please pray for these displaced children, those with whom they share homes for awhile, their mothers from whom they are separated, and those who offer them foster care?

In a few hours from now — it’s late Friday night — I will be leaving for a board meeting for a children’s home. I will be with people whose lives are dedicated to caring for babies, adoptive parents, and moms wanting to find stable and loving homes for their babies. So children are on my heart this weekend. I hope and pray they are on your heart, as well.

Who introduced you to Jesus?

Have you thanked them lately?

So often, we take knowing Jesus for granted. Most in the world don’t! In fact, I’m willing to bet that most who know about Jesus don’t really know that much about Him … much less really know Him. So if you know Jesus, how did you get introduced? Where did you first meet?

I’m betting that someone who loves you took the time … and the risk … to introduce you to the Carpenter. Most of us were introduced to Jesus by someone willing to serve the Lord and also us.

I guess that’s why I love the way the Gospel of Mark begins. Matthew and Luke give us the birth stories and genealogies about Jesus. John has the incredibly beautiful prologue that shows Jesus is God and Creator of all things. Mark, however, starts differently:

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
It is written in Isaiah the prophet:“I will send my messenger ahead of you,who will prepare your way”—“a voice of one calling in the desert,‘Prepare the way for the Lord,make straight paths for him.’ “

And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. (Mark 1:1-5 TNIV
In typical “get to the point style,” Mark says simply, “The good news about Jesus begins here: John was a servant of Jesus and shared His story with everybody.”

Introductions to Jesus nearly always begin with a servant who wants to share his or her friend with another.  Granted, John the Baptist was a bit on the eccentric and weirdo end of things, but there is no doubt his heart and his ministry and death were all lived to prepare the way for Jesus to enter the lives of other people. So guess what? There is room for all of us off-center, a little bit weirdo, eccentric people to be useful to God … if we are willing to serve others and share Jesus.

See … that’s not so hard, is it?