I suffer from depraved indifference. Most of my life has been about me, what can I
get, what can I do, how can I make my life easier and better. Laziness and materialism have been my down
fall. I’ve been given so much in life,
anything I’ve ever wanted…I got and more.
It was a normal occurrence for my Grandmother to give me a $100 every
time she saw me for me to spend on whatever my heart desired. I spent my school years amassing one of the
greatest sports collections I have ever seen.
You name a player this side of Babe Ruth I’ve probably got some
autograph or card of them. I won’t lie,
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey of amassing this collection and some of it has
led to some great times with my parents, with my grandmother, with Beth, but I
have all of this stuff now…and it sits there and I look it. I look at it and I think how I wish someone
would have told me to not waste the money, time, energy, thoughts that it took
to get it all. I wish someone had told
me that there are more important things in this world than stuff. The most important of those things is Jesus. Being the hands and feet of Jesus is to be number
one in our life.
So how did I get to this point where God has changed my
heart from its all about me to its all about Him? Here are a few of the “AHA” moments in my
life:
I asked Jesus to be my savior when I was in the second grade
after a man gave a talk where he pretty much scared us all into asking Christ
so that we didn’t go to hell. I grew up thinking that I had taken care of
that and I was going to Heaven, but it didn’t change me on the inside. I did good because I wanted my parents to be
pleased with me and I used Jesus as a my own personal genie that when life got
hard or if I needed something I would pray for him to fix it so I could have an
easier life. Beth and I joined
Silverdale Baptist Church in March of 2008.
Through the teachings of Pastor Tony Walliser and Pastor Travis Jones,
God began to show me how He desired a relationship with me that was more than
just the guy who was keeping me from Hell, but as someone who as Travis says
“Died on the cross in my place for my sins defeating Satan, Sin, and Death.” He did it all for me and He desperately loves
and wants a personal relationship with me.
He didn’t care that my heart was
dirty and nasty, but that only Jesus could change it and that His Heart could
become my heart. “AHA”
Beth has always wanted to adopt I remember even when we were
dating she mentioned a few times about wanting to adopt and each time I
remembering thinking you are crazy if you think we will ever do that. All of the negative thoughts of adoption
would flood my mind. The kid wouldn’t
look like me, we would be taking away from our “real” children to help someone
else’s child. No way in the world would
I want to take that on, it was just be too difficult. In June of 2011 my brother and sister-in-law
adopted a little girl from China. I
thought it was awesome, great for them, can’t wait for her to get here, but
that wasn’t for me. They sent us a
picture of her as soon as they could, a very simple picture of her sitting on a
bed in her pajamas and in that moment God super naturally warmed my heart and
melted away all the insecurities about adoption. He showed me how beautiful it is to love the
least of these like Emma and that there is child out there like Emma just for
us. “AHA”
I’m not a great reader, but I love listening to podcast and
sermons. I have a 25 minute ride to work
and then home every day and I usually spend that time listening to sermons of
pastors I enjoy. On most days I listen
to one of Travis Jones’ old messages; it’s amazing what God can teach me
through a sermon that I’ve heard 4 or 5 times already. I also spend time getting caught up on Kyle
Idleman’s sermons from the past 4 years at his church Southeast Christian. If you don’t know Kyle Idleman, his book Not a Fan, will radically change your
life. It’s pretty much a biography of
how I lived most of my life as fan of Jesus, but not a follower, but that’s a
story for another blog. His message from March 9th was entitled “Money Talks:
Who do you Love?” The point of the
message was look at how you spend your money and that will tell you what you
love and is what important to you. Like
I said above, my money told the story that I was in love with myself, but over
the last few years, God has shown the light on my heart that my money should
show that He is my first love. Since
Aubrey has been born, I won’t lie my thoughts have mostly been about her and
not so much about the adoption, but God used this sermon to speak to me
directly that it’s time to trust me completely with the adoption and quit
dragging your feet. “It’s time” was what
I kept hearing throughout the message. I needed to obey and He would handle the
rest. During the sermon, Kyle played a
video called Depraved Indifference by
Eric Ludy that broke me to the core.
I’ve attached it below. Its 7
minutes, but please watch its very powerful.
If Jesus
Christ can change a man like Ricky Allison into a man that feels what Jesus
Christ is feeling, then he can’t stay in
suburbia USA anymore and do nothing.
Heroes are made because they are moved not in their head, but in their
heart. You have to be moved in such a
level where you will shed blood. Jesus
Christ was moved, For God so loved the world that HE gave. And that Son that
was given, suffered and died for the cause that is being laid before us tonight. It wasn’t head knowledge about the disaster
taking place in this world. It was life
abandonment unto the cause of those that are dying. Unto the eternal souls that are around us. Do we care at the level that God cares, do we
carry a burden when we go home tonight will we grieve over the fact that those
Children are God’s Children and He is longing for an advocate to stand up and
say I’m willing God to fight for what is Yours.
I’m willing God, burden me. When
Jesus was in Gethsemane, you know what He was there for? He was there for life. He was burdened with the weight of it all for
life. He was willing to sweat great
droplets of blood. Are We? For our King
and His Glory we will rescue these little ones.
“AHA”
So what can
you do? Well, first we covet your
prayers. Prayers for wisdom in all
aspects of the adoption process. We meet
with the adoption agency tomorrow and hopefully through that God will show us
the path he wants us to take to bring Avery home. Also prayer for our protection from the lies
of Satan. I’m attacked daily with lies,
but I know that God has called us to adopt and He will provide. I’ve listed several of my expensive items
from my sports collection on eBay so pray that my items can sell quickly and
that those buying will pay genrously for them.
Also you can like our Facebook page Sweet Chicks of Chattanooga
Beth
is selling all kinds of new stuff other than cake pops now, so please at the
very least like and share our page with your friends on Facebook, so we can continue
to raise the support for the adoption.
You can also buy stuff, most of the stuff Beth is selling is under $15,
but most are custom items that would make great birthday, Christmas, Easter,
Teacher appreciation, mother and father’s day, etc. gifts, so please keep us in
mind when you need a small gift.
Also,
if you feel God is leading you to give to our adoption you can do so on our
blog through paypal.
Thanks for
reading this long post. I assure you
it’s just a small portion of what God has been teaching me lately, but I pray
that it blesses you and speaks to your heart about adoption.
For His
Glory and Our Joy,
Ricky
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