Recently in a staff meeting at church, my pastor had shared with our team the difference between faith and faithfulness. Faith is praying for something to happen, but faithfulness is believing and walking in what we know to be true, Christ’s love for us.
For about a 2 years now I’ve been uneasy. What’s next? I had asked myself this question hundreds of times expecting to hear God’s booming voice to come from the sky and tell me exactly what the plan for my life is. Well, that is definitely NOT what happened. Once I entered my senior year of college I really felt the pressure. Every time I went home I dreaded the questions that all of my family and friends asked. What are you doing after graduation? Do you have a boyfriend? Are you going to grad school? Will you be living at home? Do you have any jobs lined up? I would awkwardly and hesitantly answer these questions as best as I could but the honest truth was that I had no idea.
Graduation approached quickly and before I knew it I was walking across that stage saying goodbye to the best four years of my life. One of the things I struggle with is change. Change is hard for me. I was comfortable where I was at and I wasn’t ready to move on. Unfortunately time wasn’t on my side. So I did what I guess you’re supposed to do after college and I started grad school right away. Soon after my acceptance to grad school I was presented with the opportunity to be the Children’s Ministry Director at my church. I welcomed the job with open arms but this seemed to be the easy route. Now let me say this, although it may have been the easiest path to take at the time, it has been very challenging for me in many ways. Being in the ministry is hard, really really hard. Often times I find myself stranded in the midst of situations I have no control of. Leaning on Christ for strength is literally the only thing I can do.
Although I had been feeling unsettled for a while, during the holidays I really felt a stirring in my spirit to go. I had been toying with the idea of just picking up and moving out and I also looked into other jobs but I was really just looking. Nothing felt quite right. One morning in February I woke up uncharacteristically early. So obviously the first thing I did was go on facebook. As I was scrolling through my newsfeed I saw that one of my friends had posted a blog written by someone else. The title seemed to be something I was interested so I took a gander. As I was reading through the blog, the girl who wrote it mentioned she went on The World Race. I had heard of it before so I decided to go to the website to check it out. Without seriously looking at the information I decided I would apply thinking I’d never get it. Well much to my surprise, within a three week period I was accepted and making plans to leave.
I’ll never forget the moment I found out. I was visiting one of my very best friends, Taylor, in Pittsburgh and I had missed the call because we were cooking dinner. I glanced over at my phone and saw that a message was waiting for me. I listen to the message. It was from my interviewer and it seemed urgent. I pulled Taylor into the hallway and we called right back. This is how the conversation went…
Interviewer: “Adrienne how are you?”
Me: “I’m ok, I’ve been anxiously and prayerfully awaiting your phone call.”
Interviewer: “Well the wait is over. You’ve been accepted to The World Race!”
Me: * screaming and crying and crying and screaming *
Tears were flowing and there was a lot of hugging. My life had been changed because of a three minute phone call.
Faithfulness is believing and walking in what we know to be true, Christ’s love for us. That early February morning I decided that I wasn’t just going to pray that God showed me the right path, I was going to put my faith into action and allow God to open the right door. This next step in my life is nothing I could have imagined for myself. Christ loves me and He chose me.
