For my first blog I thought it was appropriate for me to explain how I ended up as a World Racer. This is a completely different direction from the future I had carefully planned for myself. But I guess it’s like they say, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
About two months ago my church began a series on prayer based on the book The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a new perspective on their prayer life). My pastor also invited us to join him in a Daniel’s fast for four weeks while we were digging into this topic. I remember going home that day knowing that this was something I should do because my prayer life was nothing to be proud of.
At the same time, I was rapidly trying to finish my applications to various physical therapy schools. I had everything filled out, my transcripts were submitted, and all of my letters of recommendation were turned in. The only thing I had left was the essay, which I had been avoiding as long as possible.
As I continued to read through the book and fast, my prayer life completely changed. I had a new desire to talk to God on a regular basis and allow him to work in my life. The book stressed the importance of praying circles around big dreams. He said that if our dreams don’t seem crazy or require divine intervention, they simply were not big enough for God.
"If you’ve never had a God-sized dream that scared you half to death, then you haven’t really come to life. If you’ve never been overwhelmed by the impossibility of your plans, then your God is too small. If your vision isn’t perplexingly impossible, then you need to expand the radiuses of your prayer circles.” — Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker
At that moment I realized that I didn’t really have any big dreams. Yes, I wanted to go to physical therapy school, but was that really the best I could do? Would that require God to step in and show His glory? I’ve always done well in school, so probably not. I then began to fervently pray that the Lord would bless me with bigger dreams. I also began to pray that God would show me where He wanted me to go to school. I kept repeating, Lord I will follow where you lead.
About 10 days before my first PT school application deadline, my friend Rebecca got accepted to go on the World Race. I saw her post on facebook and decided to check out what she was talking about (I had a vision of her on the show the Amazing Race). I pulled up the website and then BOOM, God hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew immediately that was the big dream I had been praying for. I knew that this is where He was leading me and that I had to follow. The idea of putting off school and leaving the country for 11 months seemed insane, which is exactly what I had been asking for. I texted my mom that night and I’m sure she thought I was joking. But in my heart I was already committed.
One of my favorite quotes from The Circle Makers says
“I learned that if you aren’t willing to put yourself in “this is crazy” situations, you’ll never experience “this is awesome” moments. If you aren’t willing to run off a cliff, you’ll never fly.”
So this is me running full speed towards the edge, knowing that God is waiting to teach me how to fly.
