My friend told me something recently as she and I were talking about the journey I was about to embark on. She said, “This is going to change everything.” She was talking about the Race.
Hang on, let’s back track.
If you’re reading this, welcome. This is my first blog, and hopefully I can entertain you well enough to get you to stick around. And if you’re wondering what this is for, well… well, just hang on, I’m getting to that.
I’m doing this thing called a Gap Year. That means two things: First, that I’ll be taking a year off of school. Second, that I’ll be going on this thing called the World Race Gap Year. In short, this means I’ll be leaving my home for 9 months to travel across the nations on a mission to spread the Gospel. At this point you might be thinking, “Parker, are you crazy? That’s insane.”
Yeah. Same.
Over the past year, I’ve hit rock bottom in my life, and I’ve soared to new heights. Over the past 6 months, I’ve learned what it truly means to have a relationship with the Father. And over the past 2 months, I’ve heard Him calling me to mission. And I’ll be honest, it wasn’t all great. At the end of this past summer, I had this grandiose plan for my life, and how I was going to serve God. The only issue was that I didn’t involve Him in the planning. I had always felt drawn to mission work, but my own plan kept me from saying yes to it. In hindsight, I definitely should’ve felt Him pushing me in different directions.
But I didn’t.
So he took my plans from me, crumpled them into a neat little ball, then proceeded to drop kick them out of my life. And to summarize it in one short phrase… it sucked.
I was broken. I’d go so far as to say I was shattered. And stupidly, instead of just turning to God straight away, I went to my friend, Evan, for advice (Evan if you’re reading this, I love you dearly but let’s be honest, I definitely should’ve just prayed before I went to you). But God knows I’m just a man, so he met me half way, and used Evan to get me to listen to Him.
Oh man, did I hear a lot. I heard that Junior year would look drastically different. I heard that He would speak in my stead. But the spookiest thing I heard was when I asked him what he was calling me to, and his response was, “Come and find out.” Oh man… But rather than being terrified, I was more excited than I’d ever been in my 19 years. That’s how I knew this was of the Lord. He didn’t design us to live in fear, or shame, or anxiety. He designed us to be joyful. So from there I began to search for where I was supposed to go, because I knew in my heart that it was in mission work.
Now, I’ve heard of a lot of different ways to go on mission. I was what someone might call a, “Young Life rat,” in high school. Because of this, I knew plenty of people who had traveled the world spreading the word of God. But one stuck out to me. This thing called “The World Race” that a crazy girl from my high school did (peace and blessings, Lauren). I couldn’t get it off my mind, so… I applied. I knew that if God didn’t want me to do this thing, He would tell me no. And if He did, well…
…here I am. Writing a blog. Trying to raise money. To go spend 9 months in third-world countries. To talk about this dude named Jesus.
“This changes everything,” she told me. She didn’t say, “This is gonna change your life,” or, “This is gonna change you.” She said, “This changes everything.” And I’m convinced that was the Father speaking through her. Because this is going to change everything. When we fully abide in the Lord, and listen to His will, everything we do is like that. It changes us, and the people we come into contact with, and even the Kingdom of God itself.
So let’s do this.
*Thanks for reading this far. I promise not all of these posts will be quite this long (or dramatic), and I’d love for you to follow me while I go on this journey. There’s so much I’m excited for, and I want to share it all with other people! So if you feel so inclined, subscribe to my blog, and listen to my story as it happens! Much love*
