I applied for the world race nine months before I would launch. I had a lot of time to prepare and to talk to people about it, and I was honestly surprised by how many people responded, either directly or indirectly, with,
“don’t go on the world race.”
They had their various reasons.
One told me the necessary vaccinations were too dangerous.
One told me that if I really wanted to help people, I could do it in America where there is plenty of need, and the fact that I was going to travel the world to “help people” was really just selfishness.
After we found out about mom’s cancer, most of my family (excluding a few, like my mom) expected me to stay home.
At the time it felt unsupportive because I still felt strongly that God was telling me to go. Now I see that most of the people who told me not to go on the world race were really just trying to keep me safe.
“In peace I will both lie down and rest, for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8
I just read “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper. In it, Piper talks about the “myth” of safety. He talks about the multitude of ways we could die every day, even if we stay “safely” in our homes cuddled in a blanket. He talks about the reality that nothing is guaranteed…and points out that we all take substantial risks every day.
The difficult part to swallow is that we take calculated risks, concluding that things that will benefit us are worth taking risks for…
but things that cause us to take a personal risk for the sake of helping someone else aren’t usually risks we take.
If I walk out of my house, get in my car, drive to the grocery store to pick up things for dinner, drive home, and cook; I could trip, get in a wreck, slip on something at the store, select produce with deadly bacteria in it, my brakes could fail at an intersection, I could have an accident in the kitchen, a natural disaster could strike…
but I’m not going to huddle up in a storm shelter when the sky is blue, my car ran just fine yesterday, and it’s time for dinner.
In the most mundane, everyday things there is risk…and I would take all of those risks for dinner.
I have, several times.
I’d be willing to bet that you’d take those risks, too.
But what about if they want dinner?
Their parents don’t even own a bicycle, they couldn’t imagine the concept of a grocery store, their parents both suffer from PTSD in the aftermath of 2/3 of their country being murdered 30 years ago, and they're hungry…
As Piper says, it is right for us to take risks for Christ – especially since we’re taking risks every day anyway.
Courageous men and women of God throughout history have taken risks for the Kingdom – and impossibly miraculous things have resulted from their obedience!
Kings (and a queen) and prophets of the Old Testament, apostles and warriors of the New Testament were delivered from what seemed like impossibly dangerous circumstances as they followed the Lord’s will!
There’s a common set of phrases used throughout Genesis Chapter 1 where every day it was evening, and then it was morning, and:
“Then God said…”
“And it was so…”
“And God saw that it was good.”
The culmination of it, though, is that God creates mankind in His image…and He says afterward that it is “very good” (v. 31).
I want that.
I still want God to look at me – His creation, His daughter, His beloved – and observe that it is (I am) very good!
I don’t want to take the salvation I received through Jesus’s death and hide it under a bowl for my own “safety.”
You take considerable risks every single day (especially if you take the Beltway to work…or if you drive anywhere in the DC Metropolitan Area, really)…
the question is, are you taking them because you asked the Lord what He had for you and “then God said,” or are you taking them because you once calculated and they added up to be worth the life you wanted?
I’m not assuming that you consciously believe yourself and your family to be more worthy of taking that risk than he is…
I just want to know what makes him less worthy of your risk? Or my risk?
People told me not to go on the world race numerous times because, when the risk was calculated, what I was doing didn’t add up to be worth the risk in their eyes.
You could argue that maybe they were right. I’ve had countless stomach bugs and head colds, Malaria, Dengue Fever, AND Typhoid…
But I also got to hold an 8-year-old with Down Syndrome – who is actually a huge brat, but mostly just desperately needs affection – on Christmas in India:
I got to place my hands on her eyes in Rwanda and watch as the living God restored her eyesight:
I got to love this 9-year-old orphan with my whole heart every day for 3 weeks in Moldova, showing her she is absolutely worthy of affection:
I got to lead this Muslim widow to Christ in Tanzania simply by asking a translator to stay at her house with me longer than I was supposed to, to remind her that she isn’t and never has been alone:
Photo by AJ LeVan
I was able to do those things because of very specific occurrences in my life that had prepared me for those exact moments.
I was sent on The World Race because God had prepared ME for it – He had those people, those communities, those LIVES in mind when He asked me to leave my home and my sick mama and my job and my friends and my “safety” behind – and He asked me to leave those things with these encouragements:
“The Lord your God goes before you and will fight for you…” Deuteronomy 1:30
“The Lord’s beloved rests securely on Him. He shields him all day long…” Deuteronomy 33:12
“I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads…haven’t I commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God is with you where ever you go.” Joshua 1: 3a & 9
This isn’t just about The World Race, it’s about every risk you’ve ever felt like you should take for someone else…when you think about those risks, do they start with, “then God said”?
I took a calculated risk this year, and I haven’t just seen lives changed – I’ve seen lives saved. I’ve seen people healed. I’ve seen demons cast out. I’ve seen Heaven unleashed on earth!
And people – people who know me and love me – people who love the Lord – people who were looking out for my best interest asked me not to go on the world race for my own safety.
But…“Then the Lord said to me: Do not say ‘I am only a youth,’ for you will go to everyone I send you and speak whatever I tell you. Do not be afraid of anyone, for I will be with you to deliver you.” Jeremiah 1:7-8
I want God to look at what His creation is doing with His gifts and see that it’s good. Genesis tells me how to get there – it starts with what God says, and then it was so, and he saw that it was good.
And if you are thinking about the race…no, don’t go if your desire to race doesn’t start with “then God said” – but if it does, don’t let anything stop you from making it so, and you will see that it is VERY good.
