Dr. Kent Keith
November 18, 2018 - W1846

[Dr. Kent Keith is president of Pacific Rim (Pac Rim) Christian University in Honolulu, Hawaii.] Pac Rim is a mentoring, nurturing, Christian learning community with tuition on par with the University of Hawaii, and half that of Chaminade or Hawaii Pacific University. Pac Rim is able to provide quality education at very reasonable tuition because New Hope Oahu allows them to use its facilities, and the savings are passed on to students and their families; also, scholarships and federal student loans are available. The next semester begins in January—more information is available through their website, www.enewhope.org.

My topic today is, “Surrender: Trusting In The Lord Completely,” based on Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV, “⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.^”

Proverbs is a wisdom book: Chapter three provides the wisdom we need to relate to God in our daily lives; verse five says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” Trusting God is a fundamental principle of faith, defined as confidence and trust in the Lord. Not trusting God is the same as not having faith in Him! So, strong faith is trusting God with all your heart!

The next phrase, “and lean not on your own understanding,” means we do not discourage the seeking of understanding, but rather to comprehend the limits of our understanding. Wise people know how much they don’t know! So seeking understanding is good; but we will never know as much as God does—so, we rely solely on Him! 

The next phrase, “in all your ways submit to Him,” means that in the conduct of our daily affairs (everything we do), we submit to God—not to other people. The body of Christ is a community of people with different gifts (some gifts are easier to see than others), but every gift counts to be used together to make the community strong. When we submit to God, we team up with each other, using our gifts to fulfill God’s will for His glory. We have different gifts with different tasks, and the same wonderous resources in this marvelous world. Jesus came to save and reach us; the Holy Spirit is here to guide and encourage us. We have all that we need to perform God’s will to perfection!

The challenges of daily life help us grow and develop spiritually; it also helps us apply the gifts that we've been given to draw us closer to Christ and understand how the Holy Spirit moves in our lives—and we become instruments of the Lord!

I like the aphorism, Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not. God is not one to do everything Himself; He wants us involved, as that is how we learn and grow.

The phrase, “submit to Him and He will make your paths straight,” means that God will remove the obstacles that hinder us from reaching our goal when we completely surrender to Him! After we've done everything we can do (used all the gifts that God has given us) and there is nothing more that we can do, we must simply trust the Lord completely! This is what happened to us when we adopted our three children: In the moments of complete surrender, we saw God remove obstacles and make our paths straight!

In the fall of 1987, my wife Elizabeth and I were in Japan on different business trips that ended on the same day. We decided to visit the Japanese government-sponsored orphanage, a Catholic organization, where children were cared for lovingly. The young orphans were waiting for someone to adopt them—but there were many obstacles! One of the problems was that the children in the orphanage still had a parent who would not give up their parental rights and made the children unadoptable, until age 18. Some of the children grabbed at us and begged to be taken away—it was heart wrenching! We met two-year-old Christina there, but because her birth father would not give up his parental rights, we left Osaka without her and returned to Hawaii.

A month later, we got a call from the orphanage that the birth father decided to give his permission for adoption. But after months of navigating through fields of complicated levels of bureaucracy (where the best interests of the children were debated), finally, in June 1988, we headed back to Japan thinking we were going to bring Christina home with us. We stayed five days at the orphanage bonding, and forming a loving relationship with Christina. But when we went to Tokyo to obtain her visa, we found more red tape, and were denied the visa that would allow us to take Christina to Hawaii! We were puzzled, saddened, and worried, so we prayed! There was nothing left to do but to surrender all to God (wait and trust Him completely), and by His grace, we brought Christina home with us to Hawaii!

In 1999, shortly after the Gulf War started, we went to Romania with the intention of adopting another child. This was a period of political unrest with probably more than a hundred thousand children in dire need. We packed 11 suitcases of gifts, food, clothing, toys, and medicines and checked in at Pan American Airlines—enormous baggage fees were incredibly waived! We arrived safely in Romania (despite the turmoil around us) and were escorted by a doctor to several hospitals and orphanages, where we saw horrible things. We saw six-month-old Angela in a hospital, recovering from whooping cough, with open sores on her little body. Her ears leaked pus, and her eyes were glazed over. A nurse said Angela was not expected to live.

We found Spencer in Buzau [phonetic spelling] in a crib, with nothing with which to play. He would try to pull himself up in his crib by the rails; he was not crawling or walking for lack of space and was stuck in his crib! When we first saw Angela and Spencer, we knew that God meant for them to be our children—but we faced other obstacles to adopting both children!

Elizabeth stayed in Romania while I went back to Honolulu to start the adoption process all over again—to bring home two children instead of one! Elizabeth rented an apartment from an older Romanian woman that was an hour-and-a-half away from the hospital that Angela was in.

Elizabeth walked daily through snow and ice to the hospital to care for Angela, and to St. Josephs Cathedral to pray. With Elizabeth’s daily nurturing of Angela, she began to slowly get better, and another couple wanted her and paid to have her! Elizabeth was devastated—the child that she grew to love was to be given to another couple!

Time was of the essence—Romania’s parliament during this time in 1991 established a Commission on Adoption that made it impossible for dual adoptions. We could only adopt one child, and we were committed to bringing home both Angela and Spencer! Information exchange between Romania and Hawaii was a very slow process: The postal service there was unreliable, and there was no email, texting, or electronics, except for a single fax machine in an Intercontinental hotel outside the US embassy. And miles away in Honolulu, I was preparing to fax the adoption decree for both children!

In Romania, Elizabeth had to trust the Lord and surrender completely to Him, and God acted! Three days after learning that Angela was to be given to another couple, the fax machine in the Intercontinental Hotel hummed; the fax machine just happened to be full of paper; a clerk just happened to be standing at the machine; the documents with Elizabeth’s phone contact just happened to be retrieved; and Elizabeth just happened to be in the apartment when the clerk called! The timing was impeccable! As there was no answering device in the apartment, Elizabeth marched over to retrieve the document that declared Angela to be her legal daughter, and presented it to the hospital!

The process of adopting Spencer was another problem—with its own set of challenges!   The day came for Elizabeth to be interviewed by the Commission on Adoption in Bucharest. While she waited her turn in the waiting area, she saw women crying and some sitting distraught after being denied permission to adopt the child they had selected. The Commission’s decision was final; there is no appeal. Finally, when her turn came, Elizabeth sat before the 12 commissioners and felt the undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit and was at peace, after completely surrendering to the Lord!

Elizabeth told the Commission about our family and pulled out a copy of a business magazine that had my picture on the cover. (This was the only time and the only magazine that had my picture on the cover!) She presented them with our financial, health, and home statement. They saw a picture of me holding Spencer and knew that we wanted to adopt two children. After a pause and more questions, Elizabeth was given the authorization to adopt Spencer. There were more challenges, but for now, Elizabeth had in her custody two children (two new members of the Keith family), and brought them home to Honolulu to meet their sister, Christina.

That was over twenty years ago: Angela is now working in Las Vegas for Crazy Shirts, Spencer is a professional ballet dancer in the Boston area, and Christina has been an ESL (English As Second Language) teacher, and is now working in Michigan for a non-profit that helps people with special needs.

My wife and I became closer to God while adopting our children: It was easier to see what God had been doing in our lives when the stakes were high, because we were really paying attention! We were focused and knew when we had done everything we could do, and when it was time to simply surrender and to trust the Lord completely!

It was in the surrendering that we saw God remove obstacles—making our paths straight! I think it’s harder to see what God is doing in our daily lives when we get so busy and distracted. We must try harder to be focused and pay attention! Journaling is one way to stay focused on what God is saying—it makes paying attention easier. Attend a journaling workshop available on weekends under the Ohana tent.

The Bible assures us that that if we submit to the Lord, He will remove the obstacles in our paths: Even when life is difficult, our paths can still be made straight because they still lead us straight to God.

We can live the life that God wants for us now and the life that He wants us to enjoy for all eternity. God bless you!

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. What are some obstacles that you are experiencing right now?

2. What were some problems you have experienced that you have overcome?

3.  What happened when you have surrendered, submitted to God?

4.  What happened when you tried to handle any problems by yourself?

5.  What happened when you submitted your problems to God?