One of my best friends is constantly quoting the Van Zant lyric, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.” As someone who tends to plan just about every aspect of my life, I must keep God in stitches. I’m a goal setter, and I do this in stages. Graduate college. Check! Find a job. Check! Establish myself. Check! Slowly but surely I continually build my “house of cards,” and while thankfully God has never sent the entire house crumbling down, he’s definitely blown several chunks away to make room for his renovations.
Another friend (I’m blessed with several great philosophers as close buds) once painted a pretty clear picture for me… “IF” really is half of “LIFE.” What IF I say hello to that cute guy? What IF I change majors? What IF I move far away from home? What IF I don’t try to witness to my friends? What IF I do? Think about the myriad of moments in every day when you or I are faced with “What If.”
It seems to me that letting God’s plan take hold, adhering to His guidance and trusting that “all things work together for good for them that love the Lord,” eliminates most, if not all, “What Ifs.” Eliminating the “What Ifs” if my biggest goal while on World Race. For one year, and starting as far in advance as I can, I’m working to let go of fears and questions, and learning to simply act when I feel/hear/sense God urging me. When God says, “speak to the woman in the mall whom you’ve never met before,” I don’t want to resist. When He says, “you know better than this; don’t do what your friends are doing right now,” I want to have the courage to obey.
My expectations for World Race are vast. I expect to be homesick plenty of times. I expect to eat plenty of food that I don’t particularly love. I expect to be frustrated when I can’t plan every moment. I expect God to move me to tears plenty of times when I think on what I should have done and didn’t, or shouldn’t have done and did. Mainly, I expect to learn – about who I am, about who God wants me to be, and about His ultimate plan for my life. And I still expect God to laugh a lot.
Be Blessed,
Ashlee
