This morning my church had the great pleasure of hearing the beautifully sobering story of Katie Davis, a 21-year-old American woman who is now the mother to 13 precious Ugandan girls. Her journey starts with a one year commitment to teach at an orphanage in Uganda when she was just a green 18-year-old right out of high school. Almost four years later and God's sovereign plan has led her to a life of full-time mission work and single motherhood in a third world country. I think I can safely speak for my Brookhills church family when I say we were all blown away by her obedience to the Lord's radical will. But she simply asked us to consider, "How could I not say yes to Him?" Convicting doesn't even begin to describe that question.
Let's be honest. I was in tears and about ready to jump on a plane before she even finished speaking. And then she said something my heart really needed to hear.
Love the person in front of you.
I feel so selfish in college sometimes. Maybe I'm alone in this, but it can be so difficult to pour into others when the whole point of school is to take care of yourself so you can do well in class. Sometimes I get so frustrated with that selfish feeling that I just want to skip this step of life and move on to the part where God lets me fulfill my calling. Katie Davis gave me a much needed reminding... Wake-up call Lacy, you can and should be fulfilling God's calling for you right now! I'm not just called to love people someday when I go wherever God sends me. I don't have to wait till I'm ministering to children, college students, or women, in Alabama, Kentucky, or Ecuador...or to whomever and wherever God leads me. I am a light on my campus this very evening. What a simple-minded epiphany. I know I'm an ambassador for Christ every day, but something about the way it was said today just clicked differently. Love the person in front of me. Love the cafeteria worker who won't take my number so I have to walk all the way home to get my card. Love the friend who borrows your headphones and never returns them. Love the brown-nosing classmate who obnoxiously answers everything right. Love your best friend, love your roommate, love your professor. Love the person in front of you, no matter who it is or how they treat you. Such a straightforward truth but boy did it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Uganda is so blessed by the obedience of God's faithful daughter Katie Davis, and I'm praising my sweet Jesus for the bricks she threw at me today too.
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