Keeping a Promise

My admiration for Katie Davis continues to deepen.

In Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption, Katie has now reached the end of her year in Uganda. She had committed to her parents to go for one year as a missionary and then return to suburban Nashville to start college.

In that year, she has started a non-profit organization to provide schooling for children, rented a large house, planted herself firmly in Ugandan soil, and adopted 19 girls, providing a home, food and love for each of them.

Yet commitment to her parents hangs over her. She thinks that perhaps she can go to college for a semester, return to Uganda , and do the rest of her college degree by correspondence or online. But she knows she has to return to Tennessee.

And she does.

I can think of a dozen justifications she could try or arguments she could make to stay in Uganda, as well as 19 real reasons. But she has made a commitment, and she returns to keep it.

It’s almost too easy to find reasons to break a promise. Virtually all parts of our culture are littered with the bones of broken promises.

Consider politics. We’re heard “read my lips – no new taxes.” We’ve heard a president justify killing an American citizen without due process or judicial review – the same president who was so appalled (as a candidate) at jailing terrorists at Guantanamo without due process of law. I watch a presidential candidate try to convince us he’s an honorable man – while approving attack ads that bring politics to new lows (and that’s quite an accomplishment).

And then there’s Katie Davis, who is willing to walk away from what she’s created in a small Ugandan village to keep a promise to her parents – honoring both her parents and her God.

I think I know how this will turn out, but I’m still in awe.

We’ve been discussing Kisses from Katie, let by Jason Stasyzsen and Sarah Salter. To see more posts on this chapter, please visit Sarah’s site, Living Between the Lines.