It’s the very beginning of month 2 on the World Race and I am ditching my pack with all of it’s contents and living out of my 25L daypack that used to be an old schoolbag.
When I’ve mentioned this to others in person, there is usually some loud exclamation that erupts from them before they have the mental control to bring it back and then politely ask me what in the world made me come to this crazy decision.
The answer is simple: God.
At home I am a huge packrat- I keep every little thing because I am somehow convinced that each little trinket will one day come in use and I love to be prepared for every possible scenario. After moving out of my college apartment, I realized that something had to change. I was so convicted by the sheer volume of things that I owned and how much of it just wasn’t necessary and was ready to sell everything.
The problem was that I had no idea how to live with less; my entire life had been filled with excess and it had become a part of who I was.
And so I prayed a big prayer: I thanked God for being blessed with excess, repented of my idolatry and greed, and asked Him to teach me how to live with less in a healthy way. I listened for an answer and thought I certainly had it when I heard Him calling me to the World Race. Traveling to 11 different countries in 11 months with variable eating and sleeping conditions and only what you can carry sounded like a huge step in the right direction! I read blogs, read reviews, did my research and bought my gear and stressed myself out trying to fit it all into a daypack and a 70L pack. I stuffed, rolled, packing-cubed, and sat on things to get them all to fit and heaved a sigh of relief when I finally wrenched the last zipper closed.
Sure, I had a lot less stuff than I was used to, but I was still seeking comfort in my things and not where God calls us to: in Him.
While in a meeting at our debreif here in Ecuador I was praying and asking the Lord what He wanted the rest of my race to look like and so clearly heard His voice. He gently reminded me of that prayer years ago and then showed a vision of my clutching to my pack as the constant, unchanging thing throughout this journey and then another where I was reading my Bible and talking to Him. He gave me a choice.
I knew the right answer, but that didn’t make it an easy choice.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) the Bible has a lot to say about comfort and about riches. It talks about God comforting His people (Psalm 23:4; Psalm 94:19, Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 57:18) and even Christians comforting eachother (2 Corinthians 1:4), but nowhere does it say that we should turn to our possessions. In fact the Bible has some harsh things to say about materialism like In Matthew 6 where it so nicely reminds us that everything we have ever worked for here on earth will eventually be destroyed and then then later says in chapter 19 that it is nearly impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. There’s warnings “against all covetousness” and that “pride in possessions is not from the Father but is from the world (1Timothy 6:9; 1John 2:16). Like in Luke 14:33 “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple,” but the beautiful thing is that God calls us to trust in Him instead of worrying because He will provide for our every need (Matthew 6:27-29). Needless to say God certainly used a lot of truth in scripture to challenge me and encourage me in this choice!
And so here I am with just my daypack looking at another 10 countries in the future. It’s going to be tough sometimes like when I have to ask to cram into a teammate’s tent with them or wear the exact same outfit for the 200th time and not feel a bit pretty. I know that it is going to stretch me like nothing ever has before in my life and that even my squadmates think I am nuts, but I am ready to give it all. I have a pretty amazing bunch of people I am traveling alonside this year and believe that they reflect an Acts 4 sort of community where no one is left in need and that they will love and support me every step of the way. I am so thankful for the ways in which God has blessed me and I am so excited to see how this tiny step of obedience is going to serve a beautiful purpose somewhere down the road. I trust with no reservations that God will provide for my every need on this crazy journey.
Today I step in the freedom of having less things to distract my attention from the one who I truly love and who loves me more than I could ever imagine.
