Years ago, I read the first article about Katie Davis, this missionary wonder teenager who turned her back on the lavish life she lived here in the states, and instead moved all the way to Uganda and adopted thirteen girls.
On her own.
THIRTEEN.
I was blown away, and truth be told a bit (ok...a lot) intimidated. At the time I was a young mom of three little ones and we were just barely treading water. We did not (at the time) have diagnoses or even a name to place on the daily struggles we were tempting to face, beyond simply 'h.a.r.d.'. I felt accomplished when we made it to bedtime all in one piece. Most of those days I didn't even pick up my Bible or have the energy to pray (beyond the "God, WHY is this soooo hard???? And God please help us survive today.")...so when I read about this eighteen/nineteen-year-old wonder child of God - I felt so discouraged.
Here was this mom, little more than a child herself, simultaneously raising her girls (as a single mom), while still nursing others in the community back to health, sharing Jesus, teaching her girls, cooking for them, and digging jiggers out of heals. How was she able to do it all? Why was her walk with God so much stronger than mine? Did He favor her or love her more?
I then read her first and second book (LOVED them both *titles at bottom of post) and knew that she chased hard after Jesus and dug deeply into His Word...two things that I knew I needed to prioritize more than I was.
Life went on for us (and for her)...but we sort of forgot about her beyond still talking about some stories in her books that touched our hearts.
Fast forward to late last year when I first heard Katie Davis (now Majors) had a new book coming out and I wondered what direction their life had taken...were they still flourishing in Africa and how many more children did she have now?!?
When I read the premise behind this book, I realized this was one that I needed to read ASAP, yet I procrastinated doing so until this week.
While this year has (overall) been better and calmer than the past three...it still has been hard. The worry and loneliness and deep awareness of how different we are...it runs deep. And the exhortation to just 'try harder' or 'that I am not doing this or that right' or that anxiety just means 'I am not trusting God or my faith is weak or I need to just let go and let God' ... I was afraid that this book would preach the same platitudes.
I was wrong.
I was completely surprised when Katie confessed her own struggles with anxiety, her deep desire to chase hard after God but at the same time she still deeply struggled with the temptation to "stack the deck" in her favor. I found myself saying, "Yep, I get that, I totally get that" more than I thought I would. At the end of the day I still deeply admire and feel slightly intimidated by people like Katie Davis Majors, but I am so glad to know that people who seem like "super" Christians struggle with the same sins and anxieties and life issues as the rest of us.
While I was comforted by the chapters that confessed her struggles (because they were so relatable) my favorite chapters were the ones where she shares how she faces these struggles. I was going to share my favorite quotes but there are too many to share. Simply read the book. It is so good.
Her first two books: Kisses from Katie and Daring to Hope
*I also pre-read the final Island Trilogy book (Escape) by Gordon Korman and The Space Between by Kiki Thorpe.
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