Dearest World

Dear World,

I am sending you a gift.  You might picture a beautiful box with a polished, satin red bow, but I need to adjust your expectations.  This gift is likely one you've met and overlooked before.  It is also one that might seem quite ordinary.  But I promise you, it is the best gift you've ever received. 
This gift is my shabby children. 

It's important that you know they won't seem very extraordinary at first.  They won't be especially polished or wear name-brand clothes.  Academic pursuits will be placed below more valuable ones.  Their list of worldly accomplishments will vary from what you hold dear and cherish.  But what will really catch your attention about them is their hearts. 

You see, dear World, I have been grooming them just for you.  What you would consider foolish to pursue, they will spend their lives seeking.  And what you cherish, they will likely reject.  But not because they are judgmental or self-righteous, but because they have been trained through all of their growing-up years to follow after love, servanthood, purity, innocence, and shabbiness. 

Yes, you read that correctly.  My children will seek to be shabby, tattered, and about as imperfect as possible.  We will highlight being shabby as a strength in our family because without it, we fall into the traps of independence and self-sufficiency that you provide.  The trap of "doing it ourselves," which leads to life without God and therefore, misses the point.  We will pledge allegiance to Jesus by being proud of our humanness, rejoicing in our hugest mistakes.  Because it is only here that we really connect to the whole reason behind being human.  That is, finding our true Love.  So that Love can come to you through our itty-bitty hands, feet, and hearts. 

I don't know quite how to tell you this, World, but what you've got going on is not exactly the cat's pajamas.  You need some help.  I don't know if you have noticed, but there is not a whole lot of goodness resulting from your efforts.  I know you haven't exactly asked for help, but I am here to serve you and love you, and so are my kids. 

Would you like to know how I'm going to do it?  I'm so glad you asked.  Well, first I am going to start with being a complete failure myself.  Yes, failing miserably is really the entry point to this kind of living.  Then I am going to fail a whole lot in front of my children.  They are going to know what "human" is, whether they enjoy it or not.  I will hurt their feelings and ask for forgiveness, make embarrassing mistakes in front of them, and let them watch me squirm as I make amends to those I impacted.  I will let them see the ugliness in my own heart and let them listen as I bring it all before Jesus for redemption.  I will narrate my life and heart in front of them.  Especially the part of talking to him.  That is going to be the main skill honed for their lives and careers. 

While other mothers are coaching their children in several foreign languages, I will be coaching mine to hear God's voice to their hearts.  While other families immerse themselves in media and entertainment, we will immerse ourselves in awesome reading about nature, poetry, music, and history.  We will read the classics aloud and dwell on all that represents goodness and Love.  Rather than being fascinated with violence and fear, we will be fascinated with how Jesus shows up in our daily experience.  Amongst the Legos, trains, and Dora blocks.  Or maybe even the Little People farm. 

Now before you go and put me in the category of "those people," and set me neatly on a shelf to be disregarded, let me just say one thing.  We are not going to do ANY of this because we are so great.  We are going to do all of it because we are not-so-great.  We acknowledge that we do not have the answers, and we know Someone who does.  We are willing to embrace a different way of life that counters yours.  We are willing to follow after a life that radically alters you and connects you with the Real Thing.  Like the receptionist or Fed-Ex guy, our job is simply to hook you up. The truth is that we are way too shabby to do this in our own strength, and frankly, we don't have the desire.  We are sooooo over it being about us.  So remember, we are just these shabby bunnies that hope to have very little of ourselves left when He is finished with us. 

Our greatest hope is not to have worldly accolades, but to be transformed by him, to resemble him, in every regard. 

Our excitement each morning is to read about him, sit with him, hear from him, and to have the honor of being used by him to love you. 

Our lives will be marked by a willingness to fail personally, so that you might get to know him.

Our resume will be full of ways we failed at doing all of this, and how he rescued us, just the same.

This is our gift to you.  We love you.