Today Kim Holt shares her Resurrection story.
Kim Holt serves as a Small Group leader and a Group Life Minister at the Church of the Resurrection. In her ten years at the church, she has also served on the Board of Trustees, and worked with the ministry called A Child’s Hope.
My story begins in late 2009. We had two sons. We were done having kids–that much was decided. We discussed adopting a child later in life, perhaps when the boys were in high school or college, but only in a vague, “sounds like a good thing to do” sort of way. I would describe myself as generally a very practical person. Usually any talk of a “calling from God” would make me uncomfortable—at least until God pierced right through my hard skeptic outer-shell and changed our lives.
One Sunday, during the sermon in Vibe worship, my husband was roaming the back of the sanctuary with our restless 1-year-old, Jonah. I remained seated with our 4-year-old, Noah. I can’t explain what happened, other than to say we were inexplicably inspired, spoken to, and prepared for something during the service (can you sense my reluctance to say it was God?). On our way home, Kyle asked me, “Do you ever have the feeling that we should do something MORE?” I replied with words that were not my own, “Actually, yes. Today I heard one word over and over–adopt.”
I’ll never forget the look on Kyle’s face. It was fear, excitement, and disbelief all in one. He tearfully explained how he argued with God all through the service, giving his best reasons for why we weren’t ready for adoption right now, how he wouldn’t be able to convince me. He decided he would bring it up and make his case (or His case), but was fully expecting me to completely shut down the idea.
The fact that we were both touched with one word during that service was completely wondrous and inexplicable. Even more amazing was how each of us was uniquely prepared for the conversation. Kyle was charged to be the champion for the cause–ready to give his best effort to convince me that we were ready to bring an orphaned child into our lives sooner, rather than later. I was charged to simply be open to the idea. Just over one year later, we have completed the adoption of a 3-year-old girl from Ethiopia. Zinesh has been home for 2 months now and, although our household is very busy, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
I still struggle to know what is and is not God’s plan for my life, but I’ve tried to make a point to listen to Him more often. Sometimes He’ll “shout” His plans to us, like in the experience above, but more often, it’s a whisper. How often are our prayers filled with a monologue about how we hope God might work in our lives? Shouldn’t we really be focusing on what we can do for Him? Shouldn’t we be ready to listen?
Return to today’s GPS to read the daily scripture and reflections questions.
