I have been disillusioned.  Of course I’m still an adoption and orphan advocate.  Our family was shaped by the hand of God through adoption and I am grateful.  Plus, the Bible is clear,

 

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
 
 
But all the sin, all the corruption, it just makes me sick.  Especially with international adoption.  Again, that’s where my heart is because that’s the tool God used to bring our kids home. But it seems every time I turn around there’s more corruption.  A broken system.  Horrible people doing horrible things.  With the millions and millions of orphans, why are children taken from their parents, or birth parents tricked, or adoptive parents lied to?  Why, Lord, why?  It breaks my heart!  And if I’m honest, it hardens it a little.
 
 
There are those who shout, SHUT IT DOWN!  The system is broken.  Better to shut it down and stop the corruption and pain.  Close countries, it’s not worth it.
 
 
Really?  As sad as all this horrible sin makes me, I can’t go that far.  What about the true orphans who need families?  Because of sin we will let them suffer alone?  God calls us to help them.  He calls us to be there for them.  The least of these.
 
 
A friend of mine was in New York for the Super Bowl.  Not to enjoy the game, but to pray and aid the lost.  The Super Bowl is a huge hub of human trafficking.  It’s estimated that 10-15,000 girls and women are brought in to be sold for sex.  And not of their own free will.  They’re forced.  They’re trapped.  They’re modern day slaves in a dark world. In our United States.
 
 
SHUT IT DOWN!  That must be the answer, right?  SHUT DOWN the Super Bowl!  Surely it’s not worth all that suffering.  No more Super Bowl, folks.  It’s done.
 
 
God gave me that correlation today, and my heart softened in gratitude.  Obviously shutting down the Super Bowl is not the answer.  Can you imagine the outrage?  Even without the Super Bowl, innocents will still be abused and taken advantage of, only in a different venue.  It’s not the Super Bowl that’s the problem.  It’s sin.
 
 
We must fight sin.  We must not let sin destroy what is good. 
 
 
Adoption is good.  International adoption is good.  Children need advocates.  Children need homes and families.  Pray and fight against the darkness.  But don’t shut down what is good.