Love unconditionally.

I recently finished reading "Kisses from Katie" (click the book title to visit Katie's blog) by Katie Davis. It's an amazing book and I suggest you read it if: you're interested in mission work, you know someone that is interested in mission work or you're just trying to understand why anyone would do mission work. I have only done one week of out-of-the-country mission work, but I can assure you that is all it took for me to fall absolutely in love with it.

Katie has a way with her words that blows my mind. She is 23 and living in Uganda with 13 adopted girls that are now all her very own. There were so many things I read that I made a mental note of or had to just pause to digest. I know it's not even realistic for me to think anyone is going to run to their local bookstore and start feverishly reading it after they read this post. So I'm going to bring the words to you. These following quotes are ones that hit me to the core. I hope they bring some benefit to your life as well.

 "I lost part of my heart to a place I'd never been before."

"I felt I was born to be there, and in many ways, living there seemed more natural than living in my native country. I had the unexplainable feeling, a settled knowing, that I was where I was made to be."

"Thankfully, God's plans do not seem to be affected much by my own."

"As abject poverty confronted me every day, I felt deeply convicted about one thing: God did not make too many people and not enough resources to go around. Because we were living in His world, there had to be a solution."

"I shudder to think what I could have missed in life because of my disobedience. I am so thankful God in His grace does not allow me to win."

"So God pick's me up, exhausted from struggling, and plops me in the center of His will for my life. And then a funny thing happens. As I kick and scream and struggle, I remember: I like being in the center of God's will for my life. God's plan is usually pretty great. It is a whole lot better than mine anyway. Ia m so glad that He does not allow me to win."

"Being a Christ follower means being acquainted with sorrow. We must know sorrow to be able to fully appreciate joy. Joy costs pain, but the pain is worth it. After all, the murder had to take place before the resurrection."

"The puddles and the color of my knees remind me that I was not tot leave this life unstained or unscarred. Even Jesus kept His scars after the resurrection. My stains are beautiful to Him and as I become dirtier and more beat up, I am becoming perfect, transformed from the image of the One who made me. And I am thankful."

"I believe there is only one truly courageous thing we can do with our lives: 

to love unconditionally. Absolutely, with all of ourselves, 

so much that it hurts and then more."