Why am I going on the World Race?
That is a question that should be easy to answer and yet, I have found it to be difficult to put into words. I know some of you are reading this and thinking that that’s absolutely absurd since I am going on a mission trip and missions is suppose to be about telling people about Jesus. Yes, a huge part of missions is telling people about Jesus but if that was my only reason for going, then this blog post would be finished and it would be the shortest blog ever written by a Racer haha. For me, this is a pretty complex question. Bear with me as I try to organize the thoughts in my head. It is my prayer that the LORD would stir something in your heart for Him and for his people as I dive deep into the reasons why I am going.
I am racing because I want to know God more deeply and more intimately. At first, I thought this reason was too simplistic and selfish but the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s not. Being in relationship with the LORD is the most important thing because without Him, life ceases to have any real meaning. I am giving up everything to know God because He gave up everything to know me. A God who is willing to give His all deserves to be followed by those who are willing to give their all. Because of this, I refuse to settle for knowing him partially or just on certain days of the week when it’s convenient. I want to know Him as fully as I can because He is a good and gracious Father who is worth knowing! Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’” Did you catch that? God is delighted when his children know him! He loves it when we see that he is righteous, just and full of steadfast love and when we, in turn, take on his characteristics of righteousness, justice, steadfast love and more. Why does God delight when we know him? I believe it is because when we know him more fully, we can glorify Him more completely. John Piper says it this way, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” It’s hard to find satisfaction in something you know nothing about and haven’t experienced. My heart longs to know my Savior more intimately and to glorify Him more completely and it is my prayer that these 11 months on the Race will allow me to do just that.
I am racing out of obedience to my King. I have spent about 3 years going back and forth about pursuing the race, asking God to make it clear what he wanted me to do with my life. I have come to the realization that the LORD answered my prayer for direction a long time ago, I just chose to be selfish and ignore it, hoping that by doing so, the answer would somehow be different. The choice has always been either grad school or the race. The distinction between these two choices is this: grad school was my idea and my plan, the race was God’s idea and God’s plan. I just took me a while to realize that distinction (about 3 years to be exact lol). I fought so hard for my grad school plans at first because it is what I had worked years for and what made the most sense to me in my narrow minded brain. Yet the closer I got to making the decision to pursue grad school, the louder the LORD got about the World Race and the more the Holy Spirit changed my heart. As I entered into the month of August this past year, time was up. I had to make a decision. The choice was not longer grad school or the Race. The choice was now obedience to God or disobedience to God. And while I was completely terrified to take a leap of faith and pursue the race, I realized that I would rather look like a fool living in obedience to God then look like a hero living a life disobedient to him. I am racing because God is persistent and knows me better than I know myself and has called me to obediently trade my flawed plan for his perfect one.
I am racing because there is a world out there that needs Jesus. It breaks my heart that there are so many people around the world who are in need of Jesus but don’t have anyone to tell them about Him. I want to make the LORD known to those who do not know Him because knowing Him is both life giving and life changing. He brings hope in the midst of darkness, joy in the midst of sorrow, healing in the midst of hurt, and so much more. I think its tragic that people may never get the chance to know of out sweet Savior simply because those of us that are called refuse to go. One of my all time favorite quotes is about a radical missionary named A. W. Miline who boldly went to Hebrides Tribe on the northwest coast of Scotland. He spent 35 years of his life ministering to these people and when he died, this was written on his tombstone: “When He came, there was no light, but when he left, there was no darkness.” That is powerful. And the sad reality is that there are still about approximately 3 billion people who are living in complete darkness with no access to the light that is Christ Jesus. That number is far too high and my heart longs to do something to change that. The Race will put me right in the midst of some of the darkest places, places where the name of Jesus is unheard of and places where people are in desperate need to hear of him. It is my prayer and heart’s desire that the LORD would use me in those places to make him known.
I am racing because God is on the move in this day and age and I want to be a part of what He is doing. Get this: thanks to improvements in technology and transportation, the Gospel is spreading rapidly and reaching places that haven’t ever been reached before. Within the last 20 years, more Muslims have come to Christ than ever before in the history of Islam. Even in closed countries in the Middle East, the Gospel is being revealed and spread. The church in China has been and is exploding. There are more Christians today in China than there are in the United States. Something that I learned recently is that there is a “back to Jerusalem” movement going on in the Chinese church right now. The goal of this movement to evangelize the unreached peoples from eastern provinces of China, westwards towards Jerusalem and have Christianity return to the place where Christ was crucified and where is started from. God has done incredible things in South Korea within the last 100 years and now they are one of the top missionary sending countries in the world! God is on the move around the world y’all and He chooses to let us be a part in his global mission. While I can play a part in his global mission right where I am, I whole-heartedly believe He is calling me to go to the nations for the next year of my life and joyfully love and humbly serve His children all over the world.
I am so grateful for all of the donations that I have received and am happy to say that I am 11% funded! God is faithful and I am trusting He will provide the rest of the funds for my trip through donors such as yourself! Please consider partnering with me by supporting me prayerfully and helping me go financially. All donations help me a great deal!
Thank you for taking time to read my blog this week. Y’all are great and I am so thankful for your love and support.
