As a future World Racer, there is a long gap of time in between the initial “hooray” of finding out I was accepted into the program and the actual launch date of the trip, September 2014. God was good in leading me to a sermon series that I highly recommend to anyone (literally anyone) by Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church. You can listen to all of the sermons from his most recent series “Sticks and Stones” here.
The first sermon was on David’s anointing as a young boy in 1 Samuel 16. The Lord sends the prophet Samuel to Jesse in Bethlehem, where Jesse proceeds to have all his sons parade in front of Samuel hoping that one of them will be the one God chooses as Israel’s next king. To his surprise, 7 of his sons pass by and none of them get the a-ok from God. Samuel asks if Jesse has any more sons, and then David comes in, the youngest who was out in the field tending sheep. God says “I want this one” (my paraphrase from 1 Samuel 16:12). David gets anointed and… he becomes king the next day! Wrong. David gets anointed to become the future king of Israel and he proceeds to go back out into the pasture and tend sheep for many more years before becoming king.
While I was not anointed to become the future president of the United States, God did anoint me to go on the World Race after I graduate. But before I can do that, God is sending me back out with the sheep. He needs to teach me something at Emory, in my senior year of college, in this season of life that will prepare me and make me a better fit to serve the least of these next year on the World Race.
I believe God has the same anointing on all of our lives. He wants to use us to do something great for His kingdom. For most of us, that won’t mean a change of assignment. God has planted a deposit in each of us; a set of gifts that we can choose to leverage or not for His glory. In this waiting period, I’m choosing to get to work back out in the pasture and allow God to prepare me for my future assignment.
Forever His,
Grace
