It’s strange how the people we meet even so briefly can impact us so much. I am always in awe of the odds that I should meet someone on a particular day in a particular moment. I was just as in awe that evening on the plane. As I reached my seat I said “hello” to the young man in the window seat. That’s when I noticed his tattoo. It said Jesus in Hebrew next to a cross. My heart leaped with excitement because I recognized the letters. I commented on his tattoo, and we started talking. It turned out that he had gone on World Race as well. What seemed like just another random stranger on the plane was God’s blessing and reassurance to me. For all the people who suggested World Race to me, I had never actually gotten to talk to someone who had gone. Everyone knew someone who had gone, but I didn’t. Through trying to prepare, train, and fundraise for World Race, doubts and worries began to creep in, and my excitement had started to feel more like fear. I prayed that I would be able to talk to someone who had actually been on World Race, because I needed some reassurance. So when this random guy on the plane turned out to be the answer to my prayer, I interrupted him to ask, “Did you like it?!?” I had to know. Did he like it? Or were my unacknowledged fears true? Looking back, it was a really silly question. What did I expect him to say? No? He was taken aback by my outburst, but he said, “Yeah, I grew a lot.” He proceeded to give me a bunch of wonderful and much needed advice. One thing he told me was to live from overflow. Meaning that instead of going through the motions, I should seek Jesus when I felt spiritually dry and continually so that everything I did would come from that place. I needed to hear that.
These past couple weeks have woken me up. Before that, I was trying to fundraise and train because it was something I needed to do, and I kept pushing at it even though I felt lost and overwhelmed. I was trying to do it on my own instead of seeking God’s guidance and peace. I haven’t been living from a place of overflow. I haven’t been bringing my doubts and questions to God and into the light, but God is too good to leave me stranded. I was so thankful to actually talk to someone who had been on the World Race. How crazy that the someone just happened to be the stranger sitting next to me on the plane. God took such a random meeting and turned it into something so valuable, and I can’t wait to see Him do it again on the Race.
