This week’s Spirit of Adoption show featured an interview with Tracie Loux.
Tracie and her husband John have seven children, a cross section of biological kids, domestic and international adoptions, and special needs. She speaks with great authority and insight on what it means to say yes to adoption.
Links referenced in the show:
Aiden Loux
I know many of you come here for articles on adoption or faith, but at times, my mind races other directions. Bear with me.
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Unless you are living under a rock (or busy making a living) you are probably aware that Wall Street is eagerly anticipating what is expected to be the largest internet related Initial Public Offering of stock in history. Facebook, having shown it’s ability to lose their own money consistently over time, is now ready to lose the money of the general public and is offering investors a chance to get in on the action.
Of course, the investors are not likely to lose money. They will buy in early and get out as the stock skyrockets because that is where the money is to be made. In America, you can lose money on widgets but make money on your reputation for making widgets. It’s the new economy.
Part of any IPO is the financial road show, when the CEO and his compadres make presentations to potential investors. They stand there, hat in hand, hoping that the guys with the money pretend to buy the vision long enough to write a check, knowing full well they’re not there because of the vision, they’re there because of the pay out.
Enter the problem for Facebook. And by problem, I mean Mark Zuckerberg. Continue reading →
A few months ago, with a heavy heart, I sold my Mitsubishi Montero. The Montero had been a ten year fixture in our family and I probably enjoyed it more than any vehicle we’d ever owned.
Somewhere around the 150,000 mile mark, I was in an accident. The truck was hit in the left rear fender by an international visitor for whom both English and snow were foreign concepts. To his credit, he did understand ‘insurance’, and it all worked out ok.
Except for the rear view mirror. In addition to the fender crumpling under impact, the accident was enough to shake the rear view mirror off the windshield. From that moment forward, no amount of Gorilla Glue, automotive adhesive, or anything As Seen on TV could keep it fastened. I could get it to stick for a day or so and then PLOP! it would fall off crossing the railroad tracks or even sitting at a stoplight.
Eventually, I tossed the mirror in the back seat and just drove. People would jump in for a ride and suddenly be very nervous that there was no rear view mirror. I’d tell them “I don’t look back. No regrets.”
Continue reading →
Yesterday, President Obama went where no President had gone before, affirming his support for the idea of gay marriage, saying:
“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that same-sex couples should be able to get married.”
The timing was forced by Vice President Biden telling the world he was ‘absolutely comfortable’ with gay marriage a few days earlier. Obama, clearly irritated by Biden’s surprise announcement, told NPR
“Would I have preferred to have done this in my own way, in my own terms, without I think, there being a lot of notice to everybody? Sure,” Obama said. “But all’s well that ends well.”
Obama’s spokespeople have long said that his ideas on gay marriage were evolving. They apparently have evolved significantly since 2008, when he being interviewed by Rick Warren, he said:
“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. For me as a Christian, it’s also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”
Interestingly, he also invoked his Christianity in his affirmation of gay marriage. It’s remarkable how the God who does not change can direct a person to believe two opposing viewpoints.
Continue reading →
It’s IHOP-KC‘s birthday week, marking 13 years of prayer. We are not having cake,, throwing a party, or playing pin the tail on the intercessor. Instead, we’re doing what we do day in and day out – maintaining a 24/7 prayer and worship meeting, ministering to the Lord and making the requests of a broken world known to Him.
IHOP-KC is easily the most misunderstood thing that I’ve been involved in, which says a lot.
Continue reading →
I dream in glorious bursts.
Not every night, not even every week, but in intense, short seasons that have me spending every waking hour wondering what they – and everything that occurs to me in those seasons – means.
I’d love to be one of those people who rolls out of bed with the dream, interpretation and application all tightly packaged…but I’m not. In fact, I usually don’t have the dream itself pieced together until I’m three cups into a pot of coffee. Continue reading →
A leader has great responsibility – they receive credit (or blame) for the trajectory of countless peoples’ lives. In light of this, leading should be one of the most intentional things people do, yet it’s often the most haphazard.
All week on The Daily Short(s) podcast, I’ll be talking about intentional characteristics of great leaders. Monday I focused on the idea that great leaders reach across generational lines because if they don’t, their influence will suffer an expiration date.
You can hear that podcast below and find the rest all week by clicking on the Radio+Podcast tab at the top of the page.
Recently a woman was arrested and convicted for bilking more than 20 adoptive families out of large sums of money by faking her pregnancy.
This week I interview Susan VanSyckle, Hannah’s Dream Adoptions‘ social worker and adoption consultant, as we examine how this can happen and what kind of precautions can be taken.
Listen here, or download the podcast and take it with you!
There are rules, and then there are Rules.
For example:
- ‘No running in the house’ is a rule.
- Gravity is a Rule.
- ‘Brush your teeth before bedtime’ is a rule. ’
- Any object in motion, short of an outside force, stays in motion’ is a Rule.
You see the difference? What we call rules are requests with potential punishment if the request is not followed out. But capital-R Rules? Those aren’t requests. They’re pronouncements. They dictate the way things are.
Except, sometimes the Rules change.
I’ve got a handful of laymen’s books on quantum physics. I have read enough to know that when you zoom in close, past the cell level, past the molecular level, to the atomic or quantum level, it would appear that the Rules change.
At the quantum level, things do things that things can’t do on a larger level – like share space and disappear or reappear.
It’s like an entirely different world – with different Rules.
When we were born into this world, we were under a set of Rules. We were limited in our ability to love, to respond to God, or to think too much beyond ourselves. Our souls were land locked. Those were the Rules.
When we come to Jesus, He changes the Rules by putting the Holy Spirit in us. It’s like going from the continental level to the quantum level. Everything changes – what was once impossible is now the Rule.
Romans 10:9-11 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
- Life in the Spirit is governed by principles of generosity and forgiveness.
- Life in the flesh is dog eat dog.
- Life in the Spirit runs through death like an arrow into eternity.
- Life in the flesh stops and rots.
It is entirely possible to stunt your own spiritual growth by binding your life to the the old Rules. You’re not limited by those anymore. You’ve gone to a whole new level. Live by those Rules now.
The internet is meant to be free. Bandwidth and hosting space, however, is not and I’m running out.
I’ve done about 240 podcasts since starting last fall (wow!) and find myself in the position of having to move some of them offline to make more room. I’ll be doing it in a week or so, so here is your chance to get’m while they’re hot (or at least online).
From this page you can find them all (it will take some clicking through). I think you can do the same via itunes, although I’m not sure you can get them all going that route. Best thing would be to subscribe via itunes going forward (from that page) so you don’t miss any.
While you’re sucking the bandwidth out of your region, you can listen to today’s from here.
