Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Making Choices

Sometimes choices are easier when the differences are stark.

We’ve been reading Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis and Beth Clark, and we’ve reached a watershed event in Katie’s life. She’s finished a year in missions in Uganda, she’s returned to the United States to attend college to fulfill a promise to her parents, and she’s finishes her first semester with the certainty that she belongs back in her new home.

The chapter ends with Katie preparing to return to Uganda; her parents have accepted her decision and essentially released her from the commitment to attend college as had been originally planned. Katie describes the torment of the certainty that she belongs back in Uganda, but details are few (non-existent) about how she and her parents came to an agreement.

I suspect there’s a reason for the lack of detail. I suspect there’s a lot of pain here, and a lot of love.

The options she has to choose from are stark – remain in the U.S. as a college student, or return to a Third World country. For Katie, the choice is not only not difficult; it’s also obvious and simple. She is meant to be in Uganda. The four months she spends in college are important – but primarily in the context of how it helps the work in Uganda.

For Katie, it’s not a question of leaving home, but of going home.

For most of us, choices are rarely that stark or obvious. A major life decision is often fraught with uncertainty and doubt. Prayer can quiet the turmoil, but prayer doesn’t automatically make the choice clear. For many of us, even after a decision is made, we still have questions, doubts and fears.

In my novel Dancing Priest, the hero’s guardian mother Iris McLaren is having a conversation with the heroine, Sarah Hughes. They’re talking about Michael’s faith and Sarah’s lack of faith. And Iris says this: “Michael has assurance. He knows, that’s all. It’s that simple. And for Michael, that assurance is a song in his heart. It’s a blessing to have it.”

I wrote that line years before Katie Davis first went to Uganda, but it applies as much to her as it does to my fictional hero Michael Kent. She has assurance. She knows, and it’s that simple.

And I suspect it’s a song in her heart as well.


Led by Jason Stayszsen and Sarah Salter, we've been discussing Kisses from Katie for several weeks now. To read more posts on this chapter, "Living the Secret," please visit Sarah's site, Living Between the Lines.

6 comments:

Bill (cycleguy) said...

Been loving the honesty of your blogs about this book Glynn. This one is no different.

David Rupert said...

Choices are really never all that clear. And the ones that are clear, I muddle with doubt and indecision.

Leadership and maturity center around solid decisino making. I've got a long ways to go

Unknown said...

May we be assured. May we be confident. May we be faithful to Christ and His leading in our lives.

Unknown said...

Let our hearts be filled with that song as well!

jasonS said...

I believe you're right--there is a lot we can understand by what wasn't said here. And that assurance is a beautiful thing. We may not have it initially and things threaten to steal it, but we can certainly have it in His love. Thanks so much, Glynn.

Anonymous said...

i like hearing her story, even though i know it's not the whole story. it tells me many things about her interaction with God and with others.

i also like the story in your book for many of the same reasons, even though it's written as fiction.