Can I just say, right out of the shoot here, that I suck at expectation? I am simply no good at it. If I can imagine a hundred different ways a situation could possibly play out, God always seems to bring about that one-hundred-first possibility that shocks me, humbles me, and shows me how Great He really is. So, if I have this much trouble imagining how things could be, I've all but given up on trying to pinpoint my fallible imaginings to an expectation.
One of the questions I have already gotten a lot (via WR staff, friends, and family) is "What do you expect from your World Race experience?"
Is it ok to be too dumbfounded and imperfect to even have an answer for that? Because, honestly, that is where I am. I know that my understanding of myself, God, and the world is incredibly small. I know enough to know that there is more out there than what I know. But I think that is one of the Great Beauties of the God we serve: He is so much greater than we could ever expect Him to be.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21).
“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." (Hbakkuk 1:5)
With that said, I basically am expecting to be overwhelmed by my World Race experience. I expect to encounter God and see Him at work in ways currently unimagineable to me. So much of my perspective of the world is post-card-laiden (Peru is Machu Picchu, Cambodia is Angkor Wat, etc.). I expect God to wreck my perspectives and replace them with the reality of His incredible children that make up this global community. I expect to be shocked, amazed, broken, edified, and profoundly changed.
I expect an enormous measure of the Presence of God. More than I have ever known, expected, or imagined…
