My Identity Crisis

2 residency interviews down… 5 to go! Liz is going to the Medical University of South Carolina tomorrow. So far, so good!
Well guys, I have a confession. I have been having an identity crisis over the past couple weeks. Please don’t worry; it’s not like a midlife crisis or multi-personality disorder or anything like that. I have just been messed up over the past few months and it has been climaxing this week and today is the first time I have been able to verbalize it. Let me explain…
Not too long ago, Liz and I made the decision to adopt a child or children in the future. This was not on our radar until the past 6 months. It has been an amazing journey in which my heart has been burdened for children without proper families. Also I have been forced to face the reality that children are being taken advantage of, in many different ways, every day around the world. Both of these realities seem to be placed in front of me daily… most of my thoughts have been consumed by them. This is screwing my life up, in a good way, but nonetheless causing me to have an identity crisis.
Jesus said that when you do anything good for the “least of these”, talking about those who are not able to help themselves, you do it to Christ. If you give shoes to someone who cannot afford shoes, you give Jesus a pair of shoes. If you give someone medical treatment, you give Jesus medical treatment. Food… clothes… shelter… etc. you do it for Jesus Himself. On the other hand if you have the ability, yet withhold from someone in true need, you withhold from Jesus Himself.

Now, in this world we live in, you cannot find anyone more helpless than children. They are the example of purity, of beauty, of innocence, being unshaped by the world. I desperately want to show these children who have no home, no family, no hope, no love, that they are important and that someone loves them. I so want to show them that I choose them, and they have enormous worth. James, the brother of Jesus, said "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction." This is becoming my passion… But how does this passion mesh together with my calling to pastor and preach?
Herein lies my predicament… my identity crisis. I hope I will never be the same again.