Katie had everything, she could have named the college she would attend, was the home coming queen, loving family, promising future, strikingly beautiful, she had the American Dream well in hand. Yet she chose to go on a short term mission trip to Uganda in high school and was then haunted by the need when she came back. She has since become the foster mother of 14 young girls and continues to give and give to people who are dying of aide and TB. Why would anyone do this?
To some degree, I can understand. I am haunted by the images and conversations I've had. What we would call superstitious beliefs and a lack of hope. I went on a short term trip to the country that holds the 3rd largest economy in the world, where people seem to have simply become used to being depressed and stressed, yet they do everything they can to hide it. A culture where it's considered rude to offer to lend a hand because it speaks ill of a person's ability to handle a situation, where love simply isn't expressed because it's just too deep. A culture that desperately needs Jesus but refuses to consider him because he's considered an "outsider". To the Japanese, Christianity is foreign. In Japan, I won't be dealing with AIDS and TB. Instead I'll be dealing with depression and isolationism.
I know a woman personally whose life is such an adventure that it could be written as an epic story. She's traveled the world, befriended the craziest of people and all for the sake of honoring God. She always inspired me to live outwardly, yet a part of me never knew how. But, I think that God is changing that in me now. A desire to live outwardly, a desire to die to myself and simply let God do his thing. Yes, God. Have your way.
My point in all of this isn't to say that these people like Katie should be held as heros, rather they should be held as examples of what the normal Christian life should be. We in America are so dominated by our dreams and ideals, our stuff demands out time. How often do we deny someone access to our life because of the inconvenience? Or that we're afraid of being tainted. Yet Jesus ate with tax collectors, he forgave adulterers, he fed hungry crowds miraculously, he touched unclean men to heal them of deadly diseases. We should do the same. Do we often think of our homes as our sanctuary? Do we say to ourselves that we don't want to house a group of people who need help because we don't want our carpets messed up or our hardwood floors scuffed up?
I am challenged by the life of Katie because she holds so loosely onto things. She holds so tightly on to Christ. I have a heard time breaking away from my job long enough to give someone a ride to the airport. Do I visit the sick in the hospital? Would I befriend someone who was dying of AIDS? I'm forced to ask these questions and then begin asking the question, "What am I willing to sacrifice for the sake of God's glory and the spread of his Gospel?" I am then forced to rephrase the question: "What in my life is preventing me from loving others to the glory of God?" The question isn't if I'm willing to sacrifice. Christians are called to sacrifice even their own bodies if necessary. No, the question really is, "What am I clinging on to that is keeping me from letting God use me in profound ways?"
I honestly think when we stop asking what we're willing to sacrifice and instead ask what simply NEEDS to be pruned out, and we actually follow through, that's when we get out of the way and the world can truly see God at work in us.
Katie Davis is the founder of Amazima ministries and her blog can be found here: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/
Katie Davis is the founder of Amazima ministries and her blog can be found here: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/
