Has your heart and spirit ever been blessed, inspired and encouraged by the heart and spirit of a sister or brother in Christ like ...

Posted : 18 Mar, 2012 08:25 AM

... this young sister in our Lord named Catie Carter?



The Holy Spirit blessed, inspired and encouraged my heart and spirit anew this morning as we read together the following article about Catie Carter on Charles Stanley's IN TOUCH website.



Love,

Steve



CATIE'S COLLAGE



A Portrait of God's Power to Sanctify



By Jamie A. Hughes



When I was a high school English teacher, people often said, �You must be a saint to deal with teenagers all day.� Yes, there were times in my ten years as an instructor when the sea of papers I had to grade never seemed to ebb. Yes, sometimes I felt as though students were determined to drive me clinically insane. But I was also blessed to work with some of the most incredible young people to ever crack a book. And while many of them taught me about honesty, faith, and perseverance, one in particular proved herself �a doer� of the word rather than simply �a hearer� of it (James 1:22).



Catherine Leslie Carter, �Catie� to those who knew her, was born on July 8, 1994, the third in what would eventually become a family of five children. Just seven years later, on September 9, 2001, she was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer known as neuroblastoma�a form of the disease that a mere 700 children in the United States are diagnosed with each year.



I had heard about Catie from many people, but she didn�t become my student until the year she died. What surprised me most about this diminutive girl in my sophomore English class was how normal she seemed. Catie loved wearing pink. She adored animals and waxed rhapsodic for weeks about a litter of piglets her family had purchased. She was a passionate Florida Gators fan and loved watching her hero Tim Tebow play. If I hadn�t known her history, it would have been difficult to discern she was even ill.



When absent from class, she requested her work be sent to the hospital. And when she returned, she took any missed tests without the aids her teachers offered. �No, ma�am,� she would tell me with a serious expression on her face, which was often swollen due to chemotherapy. �No one else got to take an open book test, so I won�t either.� It was so characteristic of her, as I came to discover. She was never one to complain, regardless of the pain she was in�which was often severe due to the nature of her disease.



The year I taught Catie was a difficult one for me personally. My husband had lost his job and could not find work in the area, but the month before school started, he accepted a temporary position in Georgia. We agreed that I should honor my teaching contract while we waited to see if his new role would become permanent, but that meant a year of living apart. At one point, I had not seen him for over six weeks and was in particularly low spirits.



When the bell rang at day�s end, my students hurried out of the classroom, leaving a flurry of crumpled loose-leaf paper in their wake. But Catie stayed behind to ask me what was wrong. Though I�d said nothing, her sense of empathy was so well developed that she�d discerned my need all the same. I felt selfish sharing with her how much I was hurting when she was carrying far heavier burdens, but she wouldn�t relent until I sat in the desk next to hers and explained. When I stopped talking, she threw her slender arms around my neck, hugging me more tightly than her tiny frame should have been able to manage. She assured me that God would work everything out and she�d be praying for me. It was then that I realized how much I still had to learn about what it meant to �fervently love . . . from the heart� (1 Peter 1:22).



During those weeks Catie missed while in the hospital or recovering at home, I kept tabs on her by checking in with Cathy Diehl, the school�s nurse, who�d become a close friend of the Carters. �I wanted her to know the school clinic was a safe place,� Cathy told me one day, �so when I introduced myself to her, I told her we were twins because we both had cancer.� Mrs. Diehl, who received her diagnosis seven months before Catie, never once questioned God�s plan for her physical battle. �When I saw that little face light up because she�d found someone who �got� what it meant to have a disease, I knew the Father had allowed cancer to touch my life for such a time as this. I could explain what radiation meant and how it would feel, and I could help her with the even harder questions like �How do you really know when your cancer is gone?� because I�d asked them myself.� However, as she had done with me, Catie often spent as much time consoling her friend as she did discussing her own pain and anxiety.



Friends and family weren�t the only people there to help. During the weeks of hospitalization, nurses and other staff members were quickly drawn to her brightly decorated room and the spunky resident in it. That is how Catie, a talented artist who created in many mediums, began working with Art With a Heart in Healthcare, a nonprofit devoted to helping children by means of art. However, it shouldn�t come as a surprise that the people who meant to be a healing force in her life ended up on the receiving end of blessings as well.



Josh Bergesen, a local artist and volunteer with the organization, claims that Catie was the reason he is now in a wonderful place with God. Because of past hurts, Josh began abusing alcohol and pulling away from his family. One meeting with Catie and her folks changed all that. �I saw the pain and suffering she was going through and realized that while this little girl was fighting�with everything she had�to live, I was fighting to die.� Her positive spirit and encouragement compelled him to seek not only the spiritual guidance he had long resisted but also much-needed help for his substance abuse problem. �She pushed me into kids� rooms at the hospital, telling me I could be a blessing to others. Basically, she kicked me in the pants and told me not to be afraid, and now I understand the joy that can be gained from helping others.� As I spoke with the people who knew Catie, it seems that every one experienced through her an outpouring of agape love�the type only the Lord can produce in the hearts of those who call Him Father.



Remember when a Pharisee asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was? ��You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,�� He replied. �This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, �You shall love your neighbor as yourself�� (Matt. 22:37-39). As believers, we like to quote this passage, but how many of us can truthfully say that we follow it without fail? I believe that at 15, Catie could. I have no doubt that her struggle was difficult, but she never let it come between her and another person she noticed was in need. Her compassion for others seemed to flow effortlessly from her, much as it did from Jesus when He looked upon the ailing and the lost.



A. B. Simpson once said that the Holy Spirit is �the source of physical strength and health, but there is something far higher than divine healing, and that is divine health. It is one thing to have the Lord touch us until we are delivered from our infirmities, but it is another thing to have Him possess us with His life, and our life become His life manifest in our mortal flesh.�1



The strength and kindheartedness that shone through Catie toward others were evidence of the �treasure� Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians�the Holy Spirit we possess in our �earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.� The apostle went on to say, �We are afflicted in every way . . . always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body� (4:7-10). Believer and unbeliever alike recognized this power in her, even if they could not name its Source. For that reason, the slim slip of a girl I first met in 2008�feisty in the extreme and highly stubborn when it suited her�was able to survive her cancer for many years past doctors� predictions. Not only that, but she also thrived in serving as what a friend called �a walking miracle that reminded us all of God�s amazing goodness.�



I set out to write what I call a �collage of Catie��a collection of memories to help me express what made her so remarkable. However, I came to realize that all of us who knew her are the more meaningful compilation. What she impressed on each of us, those things that helped us to better understand the grace and mercy of God, is her greatest work. The resulting changes in our lives are her grandest and most lasting contributions.



Because of my yearlong experience with a girl less than half my age, I came to understand that God, who is at work within us �both to will and to work for His good pleasure� (Phil. 2:13), provided for Catie Carter�s sanctification through her long battle with cancer. It was He who nourished the �seed imperishable� in her life (1 Peter 1:23), sustaining both her and her family when the path seemed unbearably dark and obscure. However, by imbuing this remarkable child with the light of His glory, the Lord provided for my sanctification as well.



Because of Catie, I no longer question my circumstances, for everything God brings about or permits serves to benefit both our neighbors and us. Like her, we are all called to various offices in service of our King, all of which have but one goal�that the name of Jesus Christ be glorified (2 Thess. 1:12). We must always be mindful that our circumstances are neither purely punishment nor the capricious impulses of an indifferent deity. Instead, they are the purposeful tools of God, our heavenly Father, who loves us too deeply to leave us where we are. Whatever tasks He requires of us, may we embrace them with gladness and in a manner worthy of the saints.



1From Simpson�s sermon �A Sanctified Body.�



Copyright 2012 In Touch Ministries, Inc. All rights reserved. www.intouch.org. In Touch grants permission to print for personal use only.

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