I love books!
They captivate the mind, stir the emotions and spark the imagination. How else can you travel the world, explore the universe, and travel through time without ever leaving your front door step?
Someone once said that there are three ways to learn.
We can learn through people, experience and/or academics. In the olden days, academics meant books. Of course, nowadays that can be a computer, a Kindle, a Nook OR a book.
I remember sitting in the library reading a story about a little boy named Danny and his rocket ship. He traveled to the moon and back before his bedtime. Whereas, I was able to do so before my next class…simply by reading a book.
Rocket Ship Galileo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have been to Africa, visited King Arthur’s court, marched in the Revolutionary War with George Washington and sailed the seas with pirates. I have solved crimes with Sherlock Holmes, debated with Socrates and Aristotle, and sat at the feet of Augustine.
Authors, whom I have never met, and characters in their stories have become my friends.
Like people, they have touched me and shaped me as I have wrestled with ideas and gained a glimpse into my own soul through their eyes.
My latest book is “Kisses from Katie” by Katie Davis. A story of a young girl who takes a three-week mission trip to Uganda in her senior year of high school. She is Senior Class President, Homecoming Queen, and has the world at her feet. She gives it all up and goes back to Africa. By the age of nineteen, she adopts six little girls and starts a non-profit organization. By the time the book is finished, there are fourteen little girls who call her mommy!
She wakes up in the middle of the night to comfort a sick child, pulls jiggers out of their feet, makes sure everyone brushes their teeth, puts on clean underwear, AND wakes up two hours earlier to cook breakfast and to make sure that the girls get to school on time.
Love is tangible, says Katie. How can these children know the love of God, if they don’t first see it?!
This is her mission. To love the people who God puts in her path. To simply say “yes” to God and watch Him do incredible things.
She makes it clear that she is not a super hero, just an ordinary person who has an extraordinary God!!
She shares her struggles. Learning to say “yes” to God has not been easy, but she has seen that His plans are so much better than her own. The joy she expresses as she finds her heart exploding puts a hunger in my soul to know my God and my purpose in the same way.
What is so crazy, she says, is that it is not complicated. It’s rather simple. Definitely NOT easy, but simple.
In a word, she says, I was available. When you start making yourself available to God…He starts moving in ways that you can’t even imagine. So, she begins each day by saying, “Okay, Lord, what would you have me do today? Whom would you have me help today?”
Then, she allows Him to show her.
I like it! In all honesty, it’s a bit scary, but I like it. For the next few days, I’m going to spend some time in Africa. Would you like to come with me?
Pick up a book or better yet, pick up The Book…
May God grant us the strength and courage to say “yes” to our God, and by His grace to be launched into our own amazing story!
Bobbie Keith Coffee Break 