Doing Hard Things

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” -Alan Cohen

So where to begin? My family and I have made a pretty gigantic change in the past two weeks, and it’s something that I think is worth sharing.  You see, I have a pretty comfortable life.  I’m not claiming to spend my afternoons sipping iced tea beside a swimming pool; but my life is pretty great.  I’ve been married to my best friend, Starr, for over 12 years, and we’ve created this wonderful family to share life with. We live in a house we can afford, and drive two cars to shuttle around town.  My kids don’t have the latest and greatest of anything, but still have more than about 99% of the rest of the world’s population.

Life was moving along swimmingly, with all of us settled into a station of comfort and ease.  Then Starr and I began to get uncomfortable with how easy everything seemed to be.

When was the last time we stepped out in faith for something great?

How are we truly creating a better story for our family?

We preach, share, and teach family…family…family…, but how do we really live this out when not in the friendly confines of our church?

So we begin to look into something that we had always talked about.  Adoption.  We looked into it, but it didn’t feel immediate enough.  I have no doubt that it will happen down the road, but felt we needed something else in the moment we were living in. Then we thought of something that was so unbelievably scary, that it almost seemed crazy.  Fostering.  We began this journey some 6 months ago, with endless parenting classes; and doing whatever we had to do to secure our license.  Then two weeks ago, they arrived.

Two children that don’t look anything like my own, yet are in need of what my family has to offer.  Not what I have as a father to offer, or what Starr has to offer as a mother…but what our entire family could offer.  I’ve watched in amazement as my children have influenced these foster kids.  They are changing hearts with their kindness.

And it’s still a journey that will grow more and more with each day, but it never would have happened if we would have settled for the comfortable.  The desire to do hard things has changed our lives forever.  Sometimes in our fear of what the future could hold, we settel for the easy. But here’s the thing I’m learning.

Easy things don’t hold nearly the potential as doing hard things.