Kisses from Katie

I think it is so fun to spread the word about things I love or am currently passionate about via blogging. It blows my mind the way things get passed around and grown through social media!

Just before Christmas my roommate, Lisa {I told you, a lot has changed around here! I'll share that story another day}, headed to Uganda, Africa, to spend the holiday with her boyfriend who is a missionary over there. As she packed and prepared, she shared a little bit of the itinerary for her time in Africa. One thing on her list was to visit a girl named Katie. Katie is my age (24), born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, lives in Uganda, and has adopted 13 Ugandan girls. Yes, you read that correctly- at 24 years old, she is "Mommy" to 13 precious girls born and orphaned in Uganda. Katie has a unique story to say the least so she wrote a book- a New York Times Bestseller titled "Kisses from Katie." After Lisa told me about her book I told Aaron {okay maybe "nagged" is a better word} that all I wanted for Christmas was "Kisses from Katie." And he delivered.

"Sometimes working in a Third World country makes me feel like I am emptying the ocean with an eyedropper. And just when I have about half a cup full of water it rains... I am not here to eliminate poverty, to eradicate disease, to put a stop to people abandoning babies. I'm just here to love." -Katie Davis (pg.13, 16)

I've only begun to break the surface at 6 chapters into the story but words like that are enthralling. Her story gives me goosebumps as I read about the tragedy, the sorrow, the pain, the rejoicing, the love, and the God who knows- and cares about- every hair on their {white or 'coffee bean-colored'} heads. Katie's words are an inspiration and a kick in the rear! Every other page makes me ask, 'what in the world am I doing with my life?' and simultaneously gives the encouragement that the God of the universe wants to bless me. When we ask 'why?' she says, "Because the God who created us loves us. Because He created each one of us for a purpose and he wants us to fulfill that purpose. Because the God who knows every hair on my head desires to lift me out of this dust and into His glory." -Katie Davis (pg. 56)

I get so caught up in my small town and my selfish worries that I forget just how enormous this world really is and how enormous the need is. The need for food, clothing, and shelter, yes, absolutely, but so much more than that- the need for love, redemption, and Jesus. The need for one person to enter the world of another. The need for willing hearts and open hands. I've never felt particularly called to serve overseas, but that's where we get it wrong. The need for love, redemption, and Jesus is just as enormous right here, in our own country, the towns we live in day-to-day, in our own backyards! My life is to be spent fulfilling the purpose God created me for.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him..." 
Philippians 3:7-9a

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Philippians 1:21

Do I live like that? No. Do I want to live like that? With every fiber of my being.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4

Don't give me what I want, Lord. But make the plans you have for me the very desires of my heart. Make your will the cry of my inmost being. Allow my hands and feet to further your kingdom.
"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news" (Romans 10:15).
Amen.

So I challenge you {and myself} to put your entertaining novels on hold and turn off the television for just a minute to read about a life surrendered to God. A life that is all about sacrifice and giving God the glory. What am I? A salesman? For right now I am! Buy the book, buy the e-book, check it out from the library, visit Katie's blog at kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com, and let's start 2013 thinking outside ourselves and seeking God's perfect will for our lives. He thinks we're pretty fantastic and has a lot planned for us.

Here to love,
B