The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Tobi Nguyen, Pastor of Trinity UMC in Durham. Anyone can sign up to receive these monthly emails here.
Romans 8:14-15, NRSV
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption.
I have two siblings, both are brothers. Mark is 16 months younger than me. We are a year apart in school. My baby brother, Drew, is 14 years younger than me. Our family adopted Drew when Mark and I were in middle school. Drew was 11 days old, and my parents flew to Lima, Peru, for the adoption process.
When Drew was three years old, he noticed the differences between the four of us who were blue-eyed and himself. That was the day I first heard my mom talk about adoption to Drew.
Now in my experience, adoption was a complicated process. My family spent years saving money, being interviewed, inquiries, doing paperwork, and research. In my view, adoption was so complicated and, at times, heart-wrenching.
Back to the conversation in the mini-van as we left a preschool playground. Three-year-old Drew asked, “Mama, why is my skin brown, but Tobi’s skin matches yours?”
My mom turned around from the passenger’s seat to lock eyes with her precious kid, her face filled with love. You’ve seen that before, when the gaze is locked-in, but the face softens with all the adoration in the world.
And she said these two sentences to Drew. “Tobi and Mark were born from my tummy. You were born from my heart.”
All of a sudden, nothing was more true about adoption than this. Nothing is more true about who Drew is and how we are family together.
My family has been shaped by adoption. My life is shaped by adoption.
Adoption is complicated but at its simplest, clergy and lay friends—you were born from God’s heart. And nothing is more true.
You are born of God’s heart. That is not a free pass to escape suffering. What it does mean is that we have the Spirit—we are inspired to work in the present for things to get better in the present—to confront systems of power and injustice. We are not satisfied with the present, but live toward a future promised by God. That future in which we hope for, work for, and participate in is life abundant.
How do you experience hope? Who reminds you of this hope?
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women