So this is my first blog post and i wanted to start out with how i was called to do a mission trip, and specifically The World Race. Well it all started about 7 months ago. I was sitting at my computer in my house all alone just wasting time on the internet using the Stumbleupon task bar. I had marked nature and Christianity for my interest and was mainly getting some pretty pictures of the wilderness with a few articles as well. Nothing was really attracting my attention when i "Stumbled upon" the World Race home page. I was a bit intrigue and since i had no idea what it was, i honestly thought it was a offroading race or something, i decided to read a little bit about it. I thought that it was cool trip but didn't think much else about it and went on stumbling.
So lets skip forward a couple of weeks now. I had just gotten off of a long day of work and went and slumped down in my computer chair not really wanting to do anything but not wanting to lay on my bed for fear of falling asleep at 9 at night. I turned on my computer and just stared at the screen for a good 5 minutes not really wanting to do anything on it. I am not really what was certain what reminded me of The World Race, but something brought it to my memory and i decided to go back to the site to search deeper into it. I wound up watching a video from one of the racer's blogs and then ended up actually going to their blog and reading it. I thought that it was a great thing that this guy was doing and decided to follow his blog.
It was sometime later, when having my nightly devotional that i truly thought about what i was currently doing in my life. I had a church and i had a job and school, but i really wasn't doing anything of any meaning. I was just stuck doing a routine and stumbling over the same sins. This got me thinking about why i kept stumbling over the same things, and i realized that i was trying to do everything out of my own strength and not Gods. A light bulb went off, if I continued to live life like I was living it I would just end up empty and not satisfied. What i really needed was to die to myself and live for what God had planned for me.
I got to wondering what God wanted for me, for what my meaning was going to be. I ended up thinking about all the things that God has called people to be, and for each one i asked myself WHY this, what would i do and how would i do it, but i kept ended up thinking of reasons not to do it. Then God stepped in and said "David, you are still trying to please yourself, by asking why you should do this all you are answering is why you shouldn't do it. Let me ask you why you shouldn't do this and i will show you why you should." The first thing that came to mind after this was The World Race, and i asked " What legitimate reasons do i have against do this?" I came up with a couple of excuses on why this wasn't for me, but over the next couple of weeks the Lord talked to me about why those things didn't matter and about what did. He showed me that nothing was holding me back from going and if i truly wanted to serve Him that i needed to get over myself. I finally let go of me, and experienced a change in the way that i was looking at what God has for me. I was ready. I wanted to go now, and not to stay where i was in my body and my soul. It is like what David Brainerd stated, a man called to help the Native Americans in the early 18th century despite having tuberculosis:
Here am I, send me; send me to the ends of the earth; send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the wilderness; send me from all that is called comfort on earth; send me even to death itself, if it be but in Thy service, and to promote Thy kingdom.
So God called me to give up myself for him, and for those who need him the most. I am leaving behind my creature comforts and going into this with a new mind, ready to experience the world and how God is working in it without the emphasis on me, and now on Him. I want to go and to serve those that are less fortunate than I am, and in doing so serving the Lord. I am willing to lay it all down for whatever the Lord has planned for me. I am very much looking forward to this wonderful adventure and what ever else that my future might be holding in store for me.
