So one of the earlier blogs we are encouraged to write is detailing how we actually ended up to this place we currently are in our lives. To share with everyone else how we were actually CALLED to the mission field. How we eventually reached that point in our lives where doing anything but this seems so empty and unfullfilling.
A few years ago my sister Kayann showed me a MadTV skit, or at least I think it was MadTV. It doesn't really matter who's it was. But it takes place in a movie theater. One of the characters is a young lady who is at the theater just wanting to catch whatever is playing that night. The other character is a bit more of a creeper. The girl catches his eye, he scoots down awkwardly close and starts talking about this and that. Eventually he reaches the point were every other line is him asking for her number. It reaches the point when she's moving seats and he just follows right behind undetered by her attempts to allude him and his desire for her number.
Not comparing God to being a creeper or anything, but He can be completely like that sometimes. Being that constant voice in your ear asking you for something, something more in your life. Meanwhile, most of us are the girl who is annoyed, moving around trying to get away, and just wanting to enjoy the movie and not be bothered by thoughts of anything else. I think sometimes that movie she's trying to watch is just our own lives. We get so comfortable with where we are, when that whisper from God comes asking us for more, we look to avoid it or ignore it.
I'm guilty. I never dreamed of going on a mission trip. Never had that desire. For those who wanted to, I saluted you. That's awesome but not for me. Not that I've ever been satisfied with the status quo, but I just wasn't going to go in that direction to try and beat it.
The first movement in the current direction I'm in headed in happened during my junior year at the Toledo. It was rather dramatic for me. One of those moments where I clearly see that He's got me cornered and I'm not going to avoid Him. Not quite as dramatic as the skies opening up and being sent on a quest for the holy grail a la Monty Python, but not too far off either.
Throughout college at Toledo I was involved with CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ). However, during my fall semester during the junior year I had a scuba diving class that conflicted with the time of CRU, so I always got in late, maybe catching the tail end of the speaker and just being there for the music. One particular night, one of the CRU staff is speaking about some deeply personal experience he had with a close call that should have ended his life. I'm fuzzy on the details after missing half of it, but it had to do with a car accident or one in which there was no humanely possible way to avoid it yet he did. It was powerful nonetheless. And he asked us to just give it all up. For that split second he wasn't driving the wheel for his life. That was all in God's hands. Put the wheel in His hands and see where He takes you. So it definitely struck a cord within me and I basically said, "Alright God, you got me. What do you want me to do?" Prayer ended, and there's a quick little transition between then and the music. My buddy Aaron comes down the isle and sees me, comes over for a quick hello, and drops this in my lap. "I really feel you need to go on this mission trip to Chicago. You really should join with us." *Cue record player scratching to a stop.* "Ha ha ha. You are a funny funny Guy. It took You what, only 2 minutes before You sent someone along basically telling me that I'd be going on a trip to Chicago?"
In all honesty, it was one of the moments were I felt I'd really stepped in something then. "Great, see what you did? Now you're going to Chicago." I didn't commit to it at that moment, but I knew what was going to happen and the idea of it really scared me. It wasn't within my comfort zone. Dance in front of children and adults like a penguin and sing about going to tea? No sweat. A mission trip? Uh oh. I knew that there was no way that I was going to avoid going to Chicago. Did I pray for something to happen? You betcha. I prayed for a schedule conflict. I prayed that the cost would be to high. I prayed that just something, anything would happen that would keep me from going. Not a chance. I went to Chicago. I served the poor and the homeless, shared with college students, worked alongside former felons, and brought smiles to the faces of many others. I changed. I took a tentative step in the direction of becoming the man God designed me to be. Who He always intended for me to be. So yes, Chicago was a great experience where I made plenty of lifelong, and beyond, friends.
Chicago came and went and it wasn't until the time that I graduated from Toledo in the spring of 2009 that the World Race seed was planted when a few friends embarked on this journey themselves. I followed their experiences and the experiences of others and finally reached that place in my life where I knew it was finally time to jump in and take the plunge. So after plenty of ignoring and switching my seat to avoid the Guy who wanted to call my number, I finally gave in and gave it to Him. He has my number and He's called in once again.
So I Go.
