Yesterday, I saw the performance by Miley Cyrus. This was a vulgar and sad display of what our debased modern culture has to offer . I began to think of all the young girls that look up to Miley Cyrus. In thinking on that, I thought about some women that I look up to. So I began to write:
Here's to the "shero", the unsung hero... Katie Davis, who sometime this year will be 25. So very close in age to Miley Cyrus. Katie left her Tennessee home at the age of 18 to go to Uganda. It was there that she fell in love with the children of Uganda. She has adopted 12 Ugandan girls. She started Amazima ministry which distributes food and health care to more than 1,600 children in Masese, a nearby slum. Although Katie is near in age to Miley, she is a very different young lady. Katie will never hear the applause of adoring fans. Instead, she hears the clapping of many little brown hands who adore her. Katie doesn't sing for a crowd. Rather she hears the sing-song happy voices of children who call her Momma Katie.
Here's to the shero, the unsung hero.... Elizabeth Elliot. Who sent her husband Jim Elliott off to an unreached people group and he came back to her in a coffin. I don't understand a young woman like Miley Cyrus, but neither do I understand a woman who would go to the group of people that killed her husband, (Auca Indians of Ecuador) and live with them for two years. Instead of a stage, or runway of fame, she looked to go "Through Gates of Spendor". She helped to translate the Bible in their language. I can begin to catch a glimmer of understanding by finding out that Elizabeth's shero was Amy Carmichael, who said, " Missionary life is simply a chance to die." Another great quote attributed to her, "One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving."
How can we explain them? It is only through Christ's love. Elizabeth Elliott would open up her radio program with these words: " You are loved with an everlasting love... and underneath are the everlasting arms." I feel for Miley Cyrus. I believe that deep down, she just wants love and acceptance. She is crying out for people to talk about her and pay attention to her even if it's bad and negative. At least then she is staying popular, current, even relevant. These women know that it is Christ that gives them relevance, not our shallow culture.
What these two women that are my sheroes have is common (one is 25, one is 86), is love. They also have in common that they "died to self". Matthew 16:25 says, "... Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." These two women made up their minds long before they went to a foreign country that they were dead. Dead to themselves. But I am sure that they have learned that it is in the giving of oneself, the pouring out of oneself into others, is when you really live!
Instead of buying the red-bottom shoes that celebrities wear, they trade it for what it says in Isaiah 58:10, they " spend themselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness..." A quote from Katie that so exemplifies this verse, " My candle is lit; I am on fire for God, for this place, for these people. My purpose here is to spread light. One candle can light up my entire room. Jesus can light up this entire nation, and my flame can be a part of it." They are examples of two lights in a dark world rather than a spotlight shining on them. They are a light, a shining example of what a real woman is and should be. They are worthy heroes that our young girls can look up to.
If they kick off whatever humble shoes they are wearing, I want to see if my feet would fit into the imprint their feet make in the earth beneath. I want to follow in their footsteps.
Here's to the shero, the unsung hero. May I be like these women. May all of us be... because they are like Christ.
(If you would like to know more about Katie Davis and her ministry, you can read her book: "Kisses from Katie: A story of Relentless Love and Redemption". She also has a blog, Amazima Ministries.
