Two of the biggest things I learned at camp were to let go of all expectations for this trip and to be flexible. Easier said than done, that’s for sure! But, I am trying my hardest to completely surrender to God this entire trip.
Well, I recently had my first opportunity to be flexible… My route changed a couple days ago!
My new route: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Thailand, Cambodia, Challenge: Asia, Malaysia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, & Malawi.
The last blog update I had (which was just last night) is the correct countries I will be traveling to. So, if that is the first time you have seen a list of my route, it is the correct one. But, if you knew my route before, you would know that originally I was supposed to go to Costa Rica instead of Honduras.
Going back to training camp… Our first night at training camp, we were asked to surrender 4 different things about the trip to God. One of those was the route we would be taking. I must admit, this was the hardest one for me to surrender. This was the specific World Race I applied for because of many different reasons, but one of the big ones was the route. Specifically… Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda! So, I am not going to lie… when I first saw the update that our route had changed, I kind of panicked inside. But, then I had to remind myself that this is all in God’s hands! If the route changed, there is a good reason for it! I did feel a sense of relief when I saw that none of those 3 countries had changed, but it was still a good lesson learned. I surrendered the route to God at camp, so I will be ok if the route does change again… even if I do not get to go to those countries I am looking so forward to. God is in control here and man created my route… it may not be God’s plan. If it changes, I know He has great purpose in the place He is sending us instead.
There is one thing that is very certain about this trip… Expect the unexpected… Expect change… Expect to not understand everything… Expect to have to free yourself from expectations… because things will not always be as we think they should be or as we think they will be. And, why is this… One reason being that we do not think the same way God does.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” -Isaiah 55:9
Anytime we question why God would do something the way He does, we must remember that we are human and we misunderstand God because we cannot possibly grasp his way of thinking. We may not understand His thinking, but we must remember that His ways are perfect and right. Ours are the flawed ones.
This will definitely be a verse I will be memorizing before the race! A great reminder… Have no expectations and be flexible when things change!
