James Bond

I hereby promise not to make any cheesy parallels between love saving the day and James Bond saving the day. There. I feel better. The title and the quote on the plaque were making even me nervous. Deep breath. And onward.

Valentine's Day is one of my very favorites. It always has been. 

I think, for me, it's always been a little deeper than the advertised romantic holiday. 

We should live to celebrate love. We are the products of an epic love. 

A love that has and will save the day.

We spent our evening celebrating with friends. Dinner and a movie. 

Good conversation over coconut shrimp and wine.

But the Lord spoke to me when I least expected. As usual. 

In honor of the guys, we scrapped the romantic comedy.

 Instead, we watched the latest James Bond.

There is a point in the movie where Bond returns to his childhood home in Scotland. 

We find out that Bond's parents were tragically killed when he was young.

That is when "M" found him and brought him to the agency. Her comment struck me.

"Orphans make the best recruits." 

...

There was a season in college, where I would wake up in the morning with an anxious sinking in my stomach. I began to realize that I was living out of an orphan heart. I had fear without cause and anxiety for no reason. I began to tell my heart. 

"You have a FATHER. You have a HOME."

And slowly, peace settled there. I began learning how to live out of my new heart. The heart of a daughter. A daughter is loved, protected, provided for, cherished.
A daughter has a hope and a future.

...

 The enemy is looking for recruits. He targets orphan hearts. And he does not only target unbelievers. He loves to stir fear, anxiety and abandonment in our own hearts. He loves for us to live out of the old. For daughters and sons to live like orphans.

Thankfully, God targets orphans as well. He puts the orphans in families. He rescues the lost, restores the broken, gives us a future and a hope. 

He calls us sons and daughters.

"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, 

but you received the Spirit of SONSHIP. 

And by HIM we cry Abba Father. 

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

Romans 8:15-16

 Orphans make the best recruits. Who is your heart listening to?