When I moved back to America in April I began planning out my new life. By early September I had my plan perfected. I was going to get a good paying job, move out of my parents house, get my own cell phone plan (with unlimited texting), pay off my debt and go back to school. But in fact my plan wasn’t perfect, there was a gaping flaw, you see, God wasn’t part of my plan. No, I hadn’t shoved God out of my life, he was very much there, I just forgot to trust in his plans for me. It didn’t take long for him to remind me in a VERY big way, an 11 month, $15000, life changing kind of way.
Let me rewind to fall 2009, because that’s when I first heard about the World Race. I forget how the conversation started, maybe it had to do with traveling, but my friend Shaela told me the news that a couple we both knew were going to be going on The World Race. I remember thinking that it sounded awesome but when I heard the price I immediately wrote it off. Fast forward to April. School had just let out in Thailand and some of my teacher friends and I flew down to Malaysia to relax on a beach. In the Kuala Lumpur airport Air Asia has it’s own terminal, usually with multiple flights arriving at once. Our flight from Thailand just happened to arrive at the same time as a flight from the Philippines carrying world racers. We talked a little bit about what they had done and where doing, but the price was flashing in the back of my head, and again I wrote it off. It didn’t help that the racers looked a little worse for wear and seemed pretty exhausted, is that really something I would want to do?
The final notice came when a friend of mine announced she would be participating in the January 2011 Race. My first thought once again was the price. I thought “how on earth does she think she’ll get the money?� I’m ashamed to admit that I really didn’t think she could raise the funds, but her confidence was inspiring. A couple weeks later she posted her World Race blog link on Facebook, so I followed it. Then I started to explore the website, and you know what? I couldn’t stop. I looked at itineraries, read FAQ’s and scanned through dozens, or maybe hundreds of racers pages and blogs. I began to think maybe I could do this. Suddenly $15000 didn’t seen like so much anymore. But I stopped myself and thought “God is this for real?� I was still finding it hard to believe, so I took to prayer. I asked God to lead me in the right direction and to show me if the Race was really right for me. I don’t know how I missed the neon sign shining above my head screaming “do the World Race.� I lost sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about the race, and when I did wake up I was just as excited as when I fell asleep. Finally I was listening and you know what? Everything just started coming together. I applied to the World Race and the same day I got accepted I was offered a full time job, something I had been searching for for months. Finally I knew I was pointed in the right direction, and you know what? Those plans I had made not to long ago, well they don’t matter as much anymore. God has placed an opportunity in my life that is much more amazing than anything I could have hoped for, and more hope filled than any plans I could have made on my own.
In the end I can’t help but be reminded of Jeremiah 29:11, a verse I committed to my heart many years ago, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.� God has a plan for me, big plans, he never lets go of them, and I shouldn’t either.
