Entering In

More from the book (Kisses From Katie)… I told you that you should just read it.  And just wait you’ll see it again :)

Anyway… I love this because it is who I want to be.  I was so convicted over the last month that just living in Honduras is not enough.  Just letting kids into my house and feeding them and playing with them isn’t enough if I’m not telling them about Jesus and entering into their world, their hearts, their pain…  So I’m learning.  I’m learning about sacrificing my wants for the sake of others.  I’m learning about the balance between giving my life away and trying to take care of myself.  And I’m learning the best thing I could possibly do is just pray and give these kids up to the Lord over and over again every day.  And in that I’m starting to to get a glimpse of how the Lord can use me in the midst of all of it.

“I sometimes got caught up in the ‘I deserve this’ moments; I still do. I have moments when I compare myself to other people and trick myself into believing that I am doing pretty well. there are still moments when I believe I should be able to relax and do nothing some afternoon, instead of taking care of one more sick person. There are moments when I think that because I have worked hard all day, I deserve to be able to sit down and eat my food instead of answering the door for one more person who needs help… the truth is that these thoughts are not at all scriptural. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that I deserve a reward here on earth. Colossians 3:23 says, ‘Whatever you do work at it with all your heart.’ It does not end in ‘and after this hard work you deserve a long hot bath and some me time.’ It does end with ‘since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.’”

“Don’t misunderstand; it is not easy. But it is simple in that each of us was ultimately created to do the same thing. It will not look the same. It may take place in a foreign land or it may take place in your backyard, but I believe that we were created to change the world for someone. To serve someone. To love someone the way that Christ first loved us, to spread His light.”

“And even though I realize I cannot always mend or meet, I can enter in. I can enter into someone’s pain and sit with them and know. This is Jesus. Not that He apologizes for the hard and the hurt, but that He enters in, He comes with us to the hard places. And so I continue to enter.”

“We aren’t really called to save the world, not even to save one person; Jesus does that. We are just called to love with abandon. We are called to enter into our neighbors’ sufferings and love them right there.”