I remember sitting in the dark in our little duplex in Austin, TX back in 1999. I was a sophomore in High School and my dad had just left my mom to pursue another woman who he assumed would make him happier. Mom wanted us to still have a relationship with dad, so we moved to Austin to follow him as he followed her. I love Austin, but at that point, I was just mad.

We started going to this church called Bannockburn Baptist Church. “Cool,” I thought, “We’re going to a church named after the field that Scotland won their freedom in the Academy Award winning movie, Braveheart.” Yeah, I was a dork, but that’s neither here nor there.

My youth pastor, Charlie Harrisberger, was quite the God-send. He took me under his wing and really became a father figure to me. I can honestly say that his influence shaped me more than any other man in my life. He began to give me books by Piper, Tozer, Sproul, Edwards, etc. and really challenging me to pursue Christ, and it was in the midst of that that our story picks up.

I sat alone in that dark duplex, 10:30 at night, reading a Piper sermon called The Depths of Christ’s Love: It’s Lavish Benefits, that changed my life forever. It was about 2 warring tribes in Rwanda, and a man losing His son in the process of trying to save the life of a child from the enemy tribe. In the wake of the disaster, he clothes, feeds, rescues, adopts and gives everything He owns (which is surprisingly substantial) to this enemy child.

It was illustrating that the power of the gospel for us is in our adoption. I woke up this morning thinking about this and the profound impact it made on me as a 16 year old boy. Now 11 years later, I have often thought about this obscure sermon that Piper preached so many years ago. How it impacted me then, and still impacts me now. How it was really the first front that the Lord used to move my heart to displaying the gospel through adoption… to follow His example.

I don’t know a whole ton of 16 year old boys who want to adopt. I think that can tend to be a girl thing. My 6 year old wants to adopt. It’s not unique to girls, but for a boy, that’s pretty weird. But I distinctly remember thinking, “I can not be the same. I want to adopt.” And I began praying that the Lord would send me a wife when the time was right who would have a heart for adoption as well. I’m so glad He did.

I’m so glad that God had given Amanda a heart for children and orphans and to respond to the call to take care of the fatherless through adoption before we ever met.

I’m so glad for that night in 2005 at the Frank Irwin Center in Austin, TX when Steven Curtis Chapman challenged an auditorium full of people who called themselves Christians to actually live out their faith through adoption, and all the conversations that sparked then. The passion it ignited in us as a married couple. And the journey it got back on track.

I’m so glad for meeting Aaron Ivey back in 2008. How he has become such a dear friend and fellow worship pastor, and reminds me what it means to be a man of God. Who displays the gospel with his life and reminds others to do the same. Who does the hard work of obedience, not for the sake of legalism, but out of a righteous heart to see the glory of Jesus Christ known in all the Earth. And who challenges me to do that through adoption.

I am so glad for moments that I can look back at and see time and time again how the Lord has been bringing us to this moment for the last 11 years and reminded that it is He who will carry it through to completion. And He will… for His name’s sake.