We have all seen it somewhere before. It’s in Doomsday movies, books, and TV shows. It’s talked about on the weather channel after an earthquake strikes off the coast. Every now and then, we see it in the news as nations brace themselves for it. It’s powerful. Waters rise as large waves are awakened by the tremor below the surface. Boats fear it. Coastal towns dread it. If it arises from the depths, there is no halting it. It’s purely unstoppable.
A tsunami. Capable of taking over entire towns, cities, and populations. Capable of stopping every day living. Capable of breaking people of every day habits. A tsunami is an act of nature that defies to be stopped.
Here I was, short of the second fundraising deadline by $1,500. I had no money left in my bank account. I exercised every option to make money. I was very anxious and found myself yet again doubting my calling to take part in the World Race journey. Yet, my ocean was still.
At Training Camp, we had this song we sang that had lyrics that read “Take me out to the middle of the river. I want to drown in that good ol’ river of Your love.” Ever since then, I’ve viewed God as a river, lake, pond, a substance of water. If you read my last blog post, you’ll see how I explained it there.
Back to the story. My ocean was still, meaning to me that God wasn’t moving in any way at all. Here I was, praying like crazy for something miraculous to happen. I was literally praying for a hurricane where God would just show up and wreck me spiritually by allowing all my funds to randomly show up in my account, but God doesn’t work that way. Instead of a hurricane, he sent a tsunami. First, the little waves started showing up on the shoreline. People started donating. $5, $10, $15 started coming in. I started to think, “That’s awesome that people want to donate and I’m pumped that they are, but this may not be enough”.
But then the tsunami arrived, and these big waves wreaked havoc. Steady flows of generous donations came through left and right over the course of two days, some of which were from people I had never met in my life before. People came up out of nowhere and were asking how they could donate. Both my server and the bartender at Buffalo Wild Wings told me they were donating 20% of all their sales from the night to World Race. Donation. After donation. After donation. Wave. After wave. After wave.
I say these things because I want you to realize that sometimes God is going to answer your prayer in a completely different way than you can even expect. When God calls you to do something, He is going to make it happen. The issue with many of us, however, is that we assume that since God is calling us to something, He will arrive like a hurricane if we make the right decision. This may not be the case. Instead, God may act like a tsunami and send little waves of grace before he sends the bigger waves.
As God sends waves of grace my way, I want to send a tsunami of thanks back to you for helping me get to this point. Each of your donations served as a part of the tsunami that came my way and allowed me to see God in a different way. I am so excited to now be able to join my team and help advance the kingdom of God in areas that need Him. May the Lord bless you and keep you, be gracious to you, and give you peace.
– N.J. Shear
