For almost all of high school, I kind of just assumed I would go to college in Boston. As application season started, I realized I did not want to do that at all. Even more, I had no clue what I wanted. The anxiety and unknowingness I felt for months seemed like it would never end. I spent so much of high school listening to other people and what I thought I wanted, but I never asked the most important person- God. I began to pray, maybe even beg, to understand what it is I needed to do. I heard from countless people, “God will put you exactly where you need to be.” I thought I was the exception to that because I felt so uncertain about my future. I remember knowing about World Race and always being curious about it, but never really thought it was a possible path for me. Gap years have a stigma, and I very much believed in that stigma. It wasn’t until January of my senior year, when I had four random college applications in, when I asked myself, “What am I doing?”. I swallowed my pride, and just sat and listened. I no longer begged God for answers, I sat in silence to truly hear Him. That’s when the small thought in the back of my brain about World Race became ALL I could think about. It started with looking at the website, to watching youtube videos, to stalking old and current racers, until it became the top thought on my mind. God truly put World Race on my heart. I knew it was right because all the fear and anxiety I felt about my future instantly lifted.
One of my favorite songs is Highlands (Song of Ascent) by Hillsong United. Here’s the first verse.
“O how high would I climb mountains,
If the mountains were where You hide.
O how far I’d scale the valleys,
If You graced the other side.
O how long have I chased rivers,
From lowly seas to where they rise,
Against the rush of grace descending,
From the source of its supply.
In the highlands and the heartache,
You’re neither more or less inclined.
I would search and stop at nothing,
You’re just not that hard to find.”
To whoever is reading this, I don’t know where you are in your faith journey or if you even have a faith. But I hope those words spark something in you as they do to me. I’m lucky enough to know God and have that relationship with him, but that relationship is not just linear, it has curves and bumps and slopes. One thing that is constant, however, is that a line is infinite. I will never truly know all of Him as he knows all of me, and as much as that scares me, it EXCITES me. I get to chase him and pursue Him, and that fulfills me more than words can write. Next on my line, is the World Race. And wow am I excited to see where this line continues on. My line has taken me to Honduras and Spain already, and wow is God amazing. I hope to dive into those countries and exactly how they fit into my faith journey in a future blog post, but to sum it all up, it is crazy how you can see God across the seas in different cultures.
For 9 months straight, while my best friends are moving into college, I’ll be living out of a backpack. My team and I will be traveling to 4 countries over this time period; Guatemala, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Swaziland. I am PUMPED to meet these amazing people whom I already text every day (mostly about Chick-fil-a lol). I cannot wait to see how God builds a community between us all and I can’t wait to pursue a personal relationship with each of them. I am also so so excited to see exactly how God will be using us. I’m not a savior, but God is. And through these nine months, I strive to be a window for others to see God through. As my senior mission statement says, “I choose to live every day by God’s great commission. I strive to live out this command to spread the simple yet incredible gospel and at the same time stand in awe of God’s creation across the globe.”
And that is exactly what I hope to accomplish in this next season of my life. Now I ask whoever is reading this, for prayer. Prayer for these communities I will be going to, prayer for my other teammates, and prayer to reach my fundraising goal. I need to reach $15,800 to complete my race. I have full faith and trust in God that I will get there. I invite you into this process as well whether that is donating, praying, or sending me words of encouragement.
Matthew 28:19-20:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Thank you for reading, see you in the next post! 🙂
