Hello friends,
Yesterday marked exactly 7 MONTHS until I will be saying goodbye to all my loved ones and will be in route with my team to our first destination: Guatemala. These last few months have been a crazy mix of excitement, anticipation, fear, and a whole lot of trusting God to accomplish what I can’t. I haven’t even left yet for the Race, but I’m already learning SO MUCH about faith, community, and walking this new life of freedom with Jesus. God has proven himself faithful to me in so many ways since I began this journey, and I am so excited to see what God has in store for these next 7 months prior to launch.
One of the biggest fears I have had since committing to the Race, and that I know I am not alone in, is it worrying how I will be able to raise the funds to that I will need to go. $19,2000 is a lot of money. More than I could possibly come up with in 7 months time on my own. But that I can’t do this on my own is really the point, isn’t it? If I already had everything I needed then I wouldn’t have to rely on Him to provide for me. I think we so often forget (and I am certainly guilty of this myself) that times of trials are really hidden blessings because this is when we need God most and that strengthens our faith in Him. These months leading up to the race will are sure to be a test of my faith as I put my trust in Him to provide in ways that I can’t.
I wanted to share a story about what faith has done in my life. A couple of years ago, I had just graduated from college, I was living in Austin still and was without a job. I was applying to dozens of jobs a week but nothing had come through yet; money was tight and I had no clue what I was going to do with my life. I was applying to jobs I didn’t really want simply because I felt so desperate to find something, anything. It was an experience like so many other people I feel. I was so set on getting that one thing, that one thing that I needed so badly just to be okay. Has anyone else related to this in some way? Instead of setting my focus on God to lead me through the hardship, I was waiting for that one thing I so badly needed to come along and then everything would be better. Looking back on this, I know now that this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. God wants us to come to Him when we are struggling, when we are in need, and when we are hurt and broken; he doesn’t want us to come to Him in perfection when we have it all together. Coming to Him allows Him to help us and to heal us in ways that we just can’t do on our own. It was during this time of struggle that I first heard about the World Race through a good friend who was at that time preparing for her launch, as I am now. I remember thinking what an incredible act of faith it was to leave all that you know and the people you love, and to go out and serve Jesus, knowing that things were not always going to be easy or pretty. I’ve watched plenty of World Race videos to know that you will miss home, you will get sick, you might even question what your doing at time, but above all these, if you persevere and choose to trust in the Lord it will be one of the most important and rewarding experiences of your life. In my closed mindset I didn’t believe that the World Race was something I could ever do, but I really believed in what her and and this incredible journey God was taken her on, and so I donated to her cause. Flash forward a couple of years and a couple of rocky hills since then, and that small mustard-seed-size amount of faith I had at that time has grown into something much, much more. I have gone from feeling so desperate to figure out out my life and my purpose to feeling complete peace knowing that my life is in His hands. He has led me to do the exact thing that I never thought I could do, and I consider that a kind of miracle. This place that God has led me to since that time would have been unfathomable to that girl a couple of years ago. If that’s what just a little bit of faith can do, just imagine what a whole lot of faith will do!
On days when the end goal seems like a very dim light at the end of a long tunnel, I find myself asking “How oh how, God? How am I ever going to get the money I need to make this happen?” But I know in these moments, I am completely missing the point. It isn’t our job to ask “How?”. Our one and only job is to TRUST Him. Not just with finances, but with all things. What are you carrying that wears heavy on your heart and mind that you should be entrusting to Him?
Matthew 6: 25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
