So it's been quite a long time since I last posted a blog. In fact, I was in Belize the last time I posted… So I figured I better get something new going. Life has been crazy. Work, social life (haha), getting ready to move… Where does time go? Despite my busy life, I still cherish the quiet moments and hear God reaching out.
Just yesterday, I started boxing stuff up and cleaning out my apartment. At the end of this month, I move in with my close friend and pastor as I continue to downsize my life prior to and in preparation for the World Race. The overall excitement for leaving the country on this wild journey is growing, but reality has also begun to set in. I stopped to take a break from packing and saw the now bare walls of my apartment, having thrown out a lot of junk and boxed a good deal of other things. And then it hit me… This is really happening. All this stuff I had worked and paid for to own, now doesn't really mean anything. Why am I willfully giving up this life of comfort and relative luxury? To some, the decision won't make much sense at all. We might do it for various reasons, but greatest of all, we do it for love. We do it to love and serve widows and orphans… the least of these.
This year has been one for the record books already for me, and the Race hasn't even started. This year, God has shown me so much about love, from loving the church and serving, to loving people like Jesus did, and most importantly, the love of my father in Heaven for me and the identity that comes with that. God brought me out of isolation, bitterness, identity issues, and mediocrity to a place where I could begin to love people unconditionally. He showed me that my identity is in The Cross, and not people or things. He stirred in me passion to serve and use my talents to the benefit of others. That desire to serve others was increased exponentially and resulted in my being accepted to the World Race.
Some people have differing opinions of missions and I assure all who are reading that my desire is not to go door to door and cram bibles down peoples throats. My life has been transformed by love, and I desire to take that love and share it with the world. To know how to spread the gospel, I look to Jesus, who did not condemn, but formed relationships with people and loved them. Those peoples lives were forever transformed by that love. So, for love, I will go. I will give up my great paying job, comfortable apartment, nice truck and even my friends and family to see God's love change peoples lives. I guess just seeing all my stuff in a pile on the floor and packed in boxes was what I needed to help remind me and come to terms with this amazing journey that awaits me in just a few short months.
