Time to Put the Pieces Together

The Lord has been so good in teaching me this summer. Now it is time to put some of the pieces together. This lesson has themed around the 4th of July. I’m going to give this to you the way I started to realize it, not in the order it all took place. So get ready to rewind with me.

On July 3, I skyped in for Sunday School. The lesson was about how our freedom in Christ leaves no room for selfishness. Now hold your place here and rewind to the previous week that I had spent with Elizabeth. Despite how incredible the week was with her and how privileged I realized that I was, I carried this attitude of entitlement around with me. An entitlement that when Ruby & Fletcher got back from Peru that I didn’t have to speak any more Spanish! Another entitlement was that I would return to all my comforts and my solid community of believers, which was completely ignorant of the struggles of Elizabeth’s life after I go back to NC. As I wrote in a previous blog, the Lord thoroughly convicted me of this on that last morning with her. So needless to say when Sunday School rolled around the next morning, there was no doubt in my mind of my own selfishness. We discussed this concept of entitlement during the lesson that day. The truth is everything that we think we are entitled to actually belongs to God. HE is the one deserving of everything and I deserve nothing! When I claim such entitlement, I exalt myself to the place of thinking I deserve what God deserves instead of being humbled!

Before that day in Sunday School, the Lord had already begun this lesson of how we spend our freedom through an encouraging letter I received the week before from my dear friend Logan. She wrote Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.” Through her letter, God began to teach me, “Katie, don’t let your freedom in Christ make you think you can do whatever you want. I did not set you free to rule over yourself, but to be free to walk by the Spirit and to love others, and for you, to GO, SERVE, and TELL!”

Now let’s return to Sunday School, the last verse of the lesson was Philippians 3:20 which says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are made for and eagerly await OUR country. That country is Heaven; as believers we are NOT citizens of this earth! This is a continuous lesson for me. My home is NOT the USA. It is NOT North Carolina. And the hardest of all to realize, my home is NOT where my family is.

That whole Sunday School lesson of entitlement came back to mind as we celebrated the 4th of July with all the IMB missionaries. As Americans in Ecuador that day, I had this attitude that we are entitled to take the day off, to celebrate, and to eat all our favorites! But I spent that day thinking about this citizenship of Heaven. Yes, we are privileged to be US Citizens, I realize that now more than ever, BUT that is a very temporary citizenship. It does not compare to our true citizenship. I am not a citizen of Ecuador, or of the USA, or North Africa/Middle East or any other country the Lord leads me to. My home and my citizenship are in Heaven.

Now rewind with me one more time to the Monday before this lesson. I opened a letter from my newest brother, Ricky. This letter is a priceless treasure. God used his letter to empower me to look courageously at who God has created me to be. My greatest challenge this summer has been working through my desperate fear of what God is going to call me to do in the next four years and in my life. But Ricky’s letter beautifully described my life, my calling, the support and love of my family, and where my home is.

This lesson continues every day. Luke 1:74 says, “…that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve [Christ] without fear.” What inconceivable deliverance! What astounding freedom! As my Daddy said in his 4th of July sermon, “Giving into ourselves is a false way to get to freedom. To truly enjoy our freedom, we must realize what it cost. Sometimes we don’t appreciate the freedom we have because we did not pay the price to have it.” Jesus alone paid the price for us, the undeserving. Pray for me to continually serve him without fear because of this great freedom!

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Special thanks to God today for those mentioned throughout this puzzle. Thank you for being crucial pieces of this life lesson for me by faithfully speaking God’s truth into my life! Know that God is using you in great ways!