During this age of COVID, we are facing so many uncertainties in life. It seems everyone has an agenda, and it’s not to bring people together, but to separate, isolate, and divide. I hope that you have a strong family, tribe, or community. I just don’t see how anyone can make it through as the loner, if for nothing else than for the camaraderie and encouragement offered to one another. In my experience, having anchor points when things get difficult, just like a rock climber, is a much-needed lifeline!

Hi, I’m Lee. In a few days, my wife, Ky, and I will have been married for 15 years. Our son, Eli is 10, and our daughter, Kerah is 8. We are a farming family. Raising our kids on a farm and teaching them the work ethic it requires, the appreciation for God’s provisions all around us, and the resilience it takes to make it through each year on prayer and hope, is one of the greatest blessings I can imagine.

For those that don’t know me, I’m the adopted son. My adoption was not and is not what you might consider a normal adoption. As a child, I grew up in a less than desirable home life where I had trouble making sense of it all. The anger, rage, unpredictability, insecure, manipulative, constant conflict, left me with always wanting more, or better, or even “normal” . . . whatever that might be. My circumstances and struggles made my faith in God grow, because if He isn’t here for and with me, who is? I desperately wanted to be the generation to break the cycle and not let my kids inherit the same life I had. Then there became a desire to be held accountable, mostly as a man and servant. I prayed, read scripture, and felt in my heart I was a new man. (2 Corinthians 5:17) So at age 24, just 6 years after circumstances forced me from home, I went to someone who had become a true father figure in my life and asked if I could take on his family name. All I knew and felt at the time, was if I can live by this name and uphold what it means, who they are, what they believe, and how they treat others, then I might just have a fighting chance of becoming the man I desired to be. I wasn’t out to be better than anyone else. In fact, I felt so much less than everyone. I just wanted to surround myself with people, a family, that I knew would hold me accountable. But the answer was a little different than I expected. It’s not just taking a name…could I become family? Did the family want me? How do I navigate the nuances of a family I didn’t grow up with?

Looking back, I can see similarities in being adopted into this family and being adopted into God’s family. (Romans 8:15) Adoption into BOTH families had nothing to do with what I could offer, which was nothing. Adoption had nothing to do with what I deserved, for as a sinner I deserve death. (Romans 6:23) Adoption is about the relationship…not the family name, not what I get out of it, but rather what I put into it. The relationship develops and grows by investing time, experience, commitment, conversation, trust, respect, and most of all, love. (Matthew 22:36-40; John 3:16) These relationships can’t be bought, but yet there is no price in which you aren’t willing to pay. My brothers and I have an unbreakable bond. (John 15:13) The same virtues we apply to our own relationship, are the same virtues we try to apply with our daily walk with Christ. Honestly, I don’t know any other way.

My belief is that God puts these anchor points in our lives to shape who we become, as we learn and grow in faith through these experiences. After we get passed them, we can look back and see the faithfulness of God. He truly will never leave me alone! (Hebrews 13:5-6) What amazes me is the people that were with me in these situations are still with me in whatever I face today! I encourage you to find those anchor points in your life. I believe you will find the faithfulness of God, as well as the people He has put in your life that “will stick closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) I also believe in finding those people, first and foremost, one has to be completely honest with themselves. Yes, being honest about who we are, why we do what we do, and evaluating our fears and failures, is pretty scary. It makes us vulnerable to others. But it is also what sets us free to love one another and to love Christ! WHO you surround yourself with is far more important than WHAT you surround yourself with. They will be your lifeline!!

We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas and are always here to offer a prayer for you.

– Written by Lee