The other night, someone asked me why I’m going on the World Race, and I froze. For some reason, I was caught off guard. My answer was generic and rushed, something along the lines of, “I want to use the education and gifts I’ve been given unselfishly to bring glory to God.” That sounds pretty good, right? Seems like that should be enough. But it didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t feel right that I couldn’t immediately articulate all the reasons why I’m going on this life-changing trip with a group of strangers and asking people for their hard-earned money to send me.
I was upset with myself. I’m trying to be less upset with myself as of late, because I’m rediscovering the Gospel and what it actually means to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and it turns out that I’m my harshest critic. I’ve found that I have a really hard time accepting the free gift of grace that we’re given because I can’t imagine that I deserve it. I mess up every single day- I’m altogether a liar, an adulterer, a hypocrite and a sinner all-around. I don’t deserve grace.
And that’s the best part, isn’t it? We all don’t deserve any of it. What we deserved was covered by the blood of Jesus. He beat death because we couldn’t. And now a life spent chasing after him and the endless joy and fullness of life he brings is a life worth living.
So that’s why I’m going.
Because currently, there are billions of people across the world who don’t know what that’s like. They don’t know who this Jesus guy is and what he did for them. They have never tasted the goodness of God through grace, forgiveness and overflowing joy. They’ve never heard that the Creator of the universe sent His son to die for each and every human that has ever lived and will ever live. They don’t realize that there is nothing they could do to make Him love them any more than He already does, and nothing they could do to make Him love them any less.
In Matthew 28:20, Jesus says to his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We are called to make disciples and emulate the love of Christ through whatever means necessary- and that’s what the World Race is about. In 1 Corinthians, Paul essentially writes that he has become all things for the sake of the Gospel, and that’s what my plan is for this next year. Whether I’m teaching, building, farming, playing, singing, dancing, listening or preaching, I will do it if it shows the love of Jesus and brings the good news of the Gospel.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8
