Ask anyone who has known me for any significant amount of time, and they will undoubtedly tell you: I am a planner. This is true, so much so that I was already choosing my future childrens’ names by the time I reached age seven. I typically WAY over-pack no matter the trip or occasion, and while some consider me utterly indecisive, I simply prefer to contemplate my options thoroughly before executing a decision. What can I say… I like to be prepared.
With a mindset as futuristic as mine, you can likely imagine my delight upon receiving Dan Zadra’s workbook, “Where Will You Be 5 Years from Today?” I have an avid love for self-help books, and I eagerly dove into what I assumed would be another “motivate me for a while” style composition. WRONG! By the second page, I had readily identified passions in my life I’d never before considered. From there on, each lesson brought a new concept that I’ve been able to apply positively in my life. (i.e. Dreading Monday is totally a handicap; if we approach the beginning of our weeks with like zeal as the weekend, we have much to gain!)
Wondering how on Earth this applies to anything? To explain fully, I have to trace back to a multitude of “God things.”
1.) An FFA speech I heard in high school, which assured me that the outcome of my life – my successes, failures, impacts – were defined by my willingness to “get up and go!”
2.) A “Here Am I… Send Me” sermon that moved to me take a more active leadership role in my home church, placing me in a position to lead by example.
3.) A group of friends who continually spur my drive for adventure with outrageous trips, seemingly insurmountable obstacles consistently overcome, and not-always-ideal conditions continually made the best of. 4.) Observing my Mom’s recent willingness to join a mission team merely three-weeks prior to their international departure, and seeing how through her willingness and Faith, God pulled everything together perfectly.
Combine this series of events (and a million other God things) with my on-going “Where Will You Be…” self-examination, and add in a fateful email forward from my best friend, highlighting an opportunity to “get up and go” all over the world, taking an active role in ministering to others and having countless opportunities to see God continually winding everything into a path for His glory, and BOOM! You have Ashlee Castle, World Racer.
Clearly God has been working on this for far longer than I could have ever imagined. Notably, through the process He has taught me that it’s okay to be prepared, but at the end of the day, all I need to do is trust Him. He has so beautifully planned my life and I am learning to just follow where he leads, and as Hebrews 12:1 tells us, to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
Here am I… Send me.
Be Blessed,
Ashlee
