surrender.

  While reading a book that details the in's and out's of a young, American girl living in the red dirt of Uganda, my mind began to wander. She describes nights of turmoil in how she would be able to provide for a hundred or more children to go to school, none of which are her own. Without stopping to think about the disease that she would most likely encounter, she loves on the small coffee-colored children that are filthy from head-to-toe, mostly orphaned by sickness. She chose to be separated from any comfort she had known to follow the Lord. It seems silly for me to equate myself with the story of Katie Davis, but I feel the opposite is true. Surrendering your life to the Lord takes on many different appearances, as numerous as the number of people inhabiting our planet. God is not interested in us saving the world. Many times a story like Katie's could sink a reader's heart into their stomach with remorse over what they are doing with their life. In some ways, I believe that her story is one to spur on the deeds of servant hearts. In other ways, I see the goodness of God to feel some of the same things she expressed living an ocean away.
  No, I have not adopted fourteen small girls to take care of as a single mother in a foreign country, but I do have to choose each day to surrender what I long for to the will of God. When I say that God is not interested in us saving the world, I want to express that we are held accountable for what the Lord has given us to be obedient with. I know someone that had to give up chocolate for an extended period of time because the Lord asked it of her. I know many people that would scoff at the idea and dismiss it as a semi-diet. This is where we as humans fall into the wrong. God looks for obedient children; children that will do whatever it takes to please the father. Sometimes, it takes a lot.
  My heart is in no way to discount the large act of following the Lord to an African country, nor to exalt the release of a savored sweet, but to express a small slice of the knowledge of God's heart that I have come to know. He is pleased when His children choose to obey Him. He promises to bless that heart. However big or small it may be, if it separates us from His grace then we don't want it. In our aching, choosing Him brings comfort.

Currently Listening: "Hearts of Servants" by Shane & Shane