Maybe you're beginning your adoption paperwork, or getting ready for a mission trip to an orphanage, or starting a new job with children. You're moving along hopefully. Then – boom! – you hit a pothole and lurch off your seat, surprised.

The roads on which we travel while caring for vulnerable children and families are dotted with potholes, spiritual potholes that have the potential to damage our faith and work. These unexpected lurches in the road can cause invisible harm in our souls, making our hopes bitter, turning our good work destructive, or even ending our hopeful journey.

Let's switch metaphors. In choosing to enter into the care of orphans we are also entering spiritual warfare on their behalf.

Men and women on the front lines of caring for children and families are often weighed down with emotional and physical exhaustion and grief. They need deep-rooted, gospel sustenance to keep going. I've been thinking about the dangers to our souls that come with engaging in orphan advocacy and adoption. It's been on my mind to write a Bible study to address this topic, and to create a breakout session that would serve front-line adoption and orphan advocates who are attending orphan care/adoption conferences. (Let me know if you're interested!) In the meantime, here are some seed ideas.

What arrows does our enemy hurl at us to try to bring us down as we advance into the lives of fatherless children? Part 1 this month, with 2 and 3 to follow.

This is tricky. We should wholeheartedly follow the convictions and callings God gives us, and we are compelled to boldly advocate for the fatherless. But with humility.

Pride hurts us. It clouds our relationship with Jesus, obscuring God's grace as we start to depend on our own efforts and zeal. Self-righteousness turns us into religious people who think “thank God I'm not like those other people.” We present our offerings with self-satisfied smugness and lay heavy burdens on those not able to match our energy. Jesus had hard words for these kinds of people. And we can easily become just like them.

If others don't care as much as I do about orphans, if they seem indifferent to adoption or the needs of children in the foster care system, then I am likely to look down on them and their motives. My work, not God's, becomes the center of my attention.

Advocacy for orphans that is infected with the poison of self-righteous pride may have the appearance of goodness but will ultimately bring destruction to ourselves and others.

The antidote: Amazed by grace I was amazed this morning to read in Isaiah as God speaks how he saves his people:

“I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me.” (Isaiah 63:3-5)

Jesus saved us, by himself. These verses of Isaiah make me think of him, deserted, in the Garden of Gethsemane. He took on the horror of judgment alone, absorbing all the evil and brokenness of the world. He did it for me, for you, and for all the hurting, fatherless children of the world. Oh, I exalt in the God who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth.

Salvation belongs to our God. He is the One who really cares about justice for children. Anything good in my life – my family, ministry, gifts – all has come from him. Did I adopt sons because of my naturally generous and benevolent heart? Would I have endured the horrors of the cross on their behalf? No. I am privileged to care for children because of his grace to me. I am overwhelmingly thankful for this.

To consider “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) What has God done for you to bring you to where you are in your life and ministry? In what ways can you boast in Him as you work? (Jeremiah 9:24)

Perhaps the Lord has given you the privilege of adopting a child or serving orphans. When you consider others who haven't done this, do you hear the echo in your own heart of the Pharisee's self-righteous prayer: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men”? (Luke 18:9-14) What's the remedy for this? (Hint: see the parable in Luke 18...)

Have you ever seen a sincerely zealous person bring hurt or destruction to the church? What might it look like in orphan advocacy and adoption ministry?

Who do you know who lives consistently with a zealous lifestyle and God-exalting, humble heart? What can you observe about them? What characterizes their life and words?

More to consider: John 3:27-30 1 Corinthians 1:31 Galatians 6:14