I am a 17 year old senior in high school. I think most seniors in high school are trying to figure out what college they want to go to. What career they want to pursue. Who they want to share a dorm with. How far away they want to go. For most seniors, the path they choose after high school is college.
And I was that senior.
I tried to be that senior (aka I might’ve wrestled with God a lil’ bit).
So why the World Race? Why choose to spend nine months living out a backpack in five different countries?
Here is the simple answer.
But God.
He has a way of disrupting our plans for our lives and guiding our paths in a direction we would not have chosen for ourselves. Sometimes, He does this in a quiet whisper- a gentle nudging in your soul for something more. Sometimes, He speaks so clearly that you have no choice but to listen. I think almost always though, He plants little seeds over the course of your life that point to His plan- whether through God-breathed passions, dreams, the words of godly people, or a number of other ways.
God has most definitely given me a passion for the world (read more on that on my “about” page!), but in my mind this passion simply included week long, maybe two week, mission trips. Thus, when senior year came, I began thinking about college in the next year. I tried so hard to be positive that it was the path He would take me on.
But still, there was this feeling in my soul. This gentle push to go. This quiet beckoning to follow a different path, to be a part of His Kingdom work in a different way.
I tried to ignore it, because honestly? I was scared. Scared to leave and do something so outside of my comfort zone. Fear is okay, though. Fear can also be affirmation. If this wasn’t something the Lord had placed on my heart, I would’ve simply been indifferent.
And turns out, I couldn’t ignore it.
I couldn’t ignore it because in 2014 the Lord sent a man to kneel on a dusty floor of a church in Ethiopia and pray over my feet. He prayed in a language I could not understand, but from a heart so obviously filled with Holy Spirit. He prayed over feet that would go and bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.
I could not ignore this calling because in 2016 the Lord gave me a vision for Guatemala. He showed me people hurt in the dark alleys of the city, and then people like myself helping them into the light and to a doctor. He told me it is not my job to save people, only He can do that. He commissioned me to walk with the hurting, to help them see the only true Light.
He sent affirmation through godly leaders in my life whom I respect, who know me, and who walk with the Lord.
He continued to speak to my heart. He whispered His calling through the pages of His word and the songs I would sing.
But God.
So this is why I am going on the World Race. I serve a God whose plan for the world is so much bigger than anything I could ever comprehend and He invites me, invites us all to be a part of it.
He made my piece in His story clear; it was up to me to submit to His perfect will. I am choosing to follow His path with abandonment, trusting that I will uncover new things in Him. While following Him into the unknown is sometimes scary, I have peace. I am excited.
I am following His path. I am a World Racer.
