This crazy journey of life is so wonderfully orchestrated by a God who sees and hears and knows the cry of our hearts.
“You’re doing what now? You’re going on an 11 month missions trip? Who’s going to pay your bills? How are you going to get all that money?”
These are questions I’m asked frequently, and honestly sometimes catch myself asking. Because let’s be real, it’s a little crazy! No one just up and decides to drop everything and go around the world for almost a year. That’s crazy talk. That’s not how this life works. You’re supposed to get up, put on a good face, go to work, come home, sleep, and repeat until you’re old enough to retire. Life leading up to that is supposed to be prep work, go to college, get a degree, get married after graduation, and then you get to have your dream job. That’s what this culture tells me I’m supposed to be working towards. So me leaving my life here behind for 11 months? That just doesn’t fit the mold. But what if that’s not really what this life is about? What if this picturesque view of a white picket fence, college funds for my 2.5 kids, and a job I love is all just a big fat lie?
“I sought out the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4
When I first felt the Lord calling me on the World Race I was so scared. I have taken big steps in life before, I went to college for two years and I had never felt so misplaced and alone. I wasn’t walking with the Lord, I was making stupid choices, my life felt like it was crumbling. I understood that the plan I had for myself to follow the world’s expectation of what this life is supposed to be were not God’s. But now what? I had rededicated my life to following Jesus, and I felt alive and on fire more than ever before but how could I know for sure that this is what I was called to? The fact is that there is no test that you can take that tells you on paper where God wants you to be exactly, at every point in your life. That’s not how God works. He wants us to trust him (Proverbs 3:5). So I ran to Jesus with all of my fears and doubts and he delivered me from them. He gave me the courage to start walking through this new adventure. He continues to deliver me when fear creeps in. He continues to show me that this “cookie cutter” version of life that I had hoped for is not real.
Real life is full of mistakes and mishaps and “oopsies”. Real life is also full of joy and laughter and peace. With Jesus all of this real life stuff serves a purpose, and it is just crazy the way the Lord pieces it all together perfectly.
“Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8
Without Jesus, none of this makes a drop of sense. But I have tasted and seen his goodness. He has delivered me from fear, He has saved me from the life that I had planned for myself. So when I’m asked the question “How could you leave your life behind and go all over the world?” my response will be, “How could I not?”
