In theory, asking God where He wants us to go and what He wants us to do should be a part of our daily walk as followers of Christ.
In practice, it is so much easier said than done.
When we started this chapter of our journey two months ago, this “Ask the Lord” or ATL season, I was incredibly apprehensive. We flew to Myanmar with no set local hosts or ministries and were told to work our way through to Thailand and Malaysia over the next few months, praying and discerning where God wanted us to go, when we should stay and when we should move, and who we should meet and pour into.
For weeks, I felt incredibly frustrated as we couldn’t seem to hit our stride with consistent relationships or volunteer opportunities. I was skeptical about this section of the Race from the beginning, and I told our mentor as much on the phone. I asked her what the point was of sending us out with what felt like nothing to go off of, and I confided that, frankly, it felt like an inefficient, ineffective waste of time and resources. I told her it was hard for me to not feel like the Race was already over and that I should just go home now.
Thank goodness for perspective.
She acknowledged my concerns and frustrations, empathized with what I was feeling, and advised me to ask myself what I would regret if I didn’t do or learn in the last few months of the Race.
Sitting on the beach in Myanmar, I initially struggled to come up with anything I still wanted to learn or do. As I prayed and wrestled with the Lord, I realized that the question wasn’t really about the World Race or having some great, meaningful experience; it was about who I want to be when I come home in two months and how to get there.
The ideas started flowing.
I want to have friends who don’t look like me. I want seeking God’s presence to be my first priority, not mindlessly striving to achieve or accomplish tasks. I want to have unexpected conversations and encounters on a regular basis.
That conversation and subsequent reflections gave me the needed shift in perspective to see that although this year has been, in some ways, entirely different from what I expected, it has been such a gift to have this time to pause and reflect on life in a way I might not have gotten being home.
It’s funny what a shift in perspective can do. Although the last two months of ATL have still been full of ups and downs, God has showed up in some crazy big ways. I almost missed it.
We rolled up in Thailand after 30 straight hours of going from bus to taxi to “ferry” (aka wooden boat across a lake to cross the border) back to bus with no clue what the month would hold in store. Within three days, we were able to meet with people our team had reached out to about volunteer opportunities. Before we knew it, we were plugged in with a local international church and a school for students whose families are from Myanmar and live in construction camps.
This month quickly went from not having a clue to spending each morning teaching some incredible kids how to dream and set goals (and how to line dance!) and spending our afternoons and evenings partnering with other local ministries and people from the church. Thailand went from being a month I dreaded with nervous apprehension to being one of my favorite months on the Race.
My awesome teammate, Kelsey, wrote a song to encourage the kids to dream big!
Throughout this month, I’ve also been reading a book called “Dreaming with God” that has “coincidentally” connected so many lessons I’ve been learning this year about the Holy Spirit and how we are designed to love and connect with people. The Lord has been blowing my mind with His faithfulness, and I’m learning more about how God shows up and how to pursue a relationship with Him over merely observing a set of religious rules and restrictions to try to earn His love.
I started out dreading our Ask the Lord months and am wrapping them up grateful to have learned that while God doesn’t always show up how we expect Him to, He does always show up. A huge thank you to everyone who has been praying and encouraging me in this season in particular! Another huge thank you to our mentor, Megan, for helping me hang in there to finish this thing strong.
Peace, blessings, and prayers that you would be able to experience the fruit of Asking the Lord for direction in your own life.
