It occurred to me that there are SO many unanswered questions as to “Why” I’m doing this, or “What made me” do this, and to that I have one simple answer: You can’t run from God. What do I even mean by that? Well, let’s rewind.
I first came across this idea of TWR (The World Race) back in my Junior year of high school. It seemed very interesting and like a great experience. Me not being 18 at the time, I put it on the back burner and let it slip out of my mind. Fast forward to December of 2018. I was up late one night and decided to check my email. When I did, I noticed I had gotten an email from TWR saying that for the holiday season they were wavering the application fee for the race. So I decided to apply. After applying I immediately scheduled an interview by phone for the following Monday…well Monday rolled around, and I had become afraid and discouraged thinking that I’m not “Christian enough” to go, and intimidated at the fact that this “thing” was NINE MONTHS overseas and had a nearly SEVENTEEN THOUSAND dollar price tag. Thats the price of a car! I began to question everything. How would I even raise that much money? What about my relationships? What about my job? What about college?…So when Monday came around, I let the phone ring. I purposefully missed my interview and decided once again to let it go.
Little did I know, you can’t run from God. Three weeks went by after my missed interview, and I went on a vacation in Orlando. The last day of my vacation we went to a church I had never been to before, and to be quite honest I didn’t want to go. I was exhausted from the nights before. But once I sat down and the pastor started preaching, I KNEW that the sermon he was preaching was meant for ME. He spoke out of Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for MY sake shall find it” and immediately I knew that God was trying to get through to me. The verses matched exactly to what I was going through in regards to this whole World Race dilemma. I needed to give up all of the doubt and worries I had, and “lose my life” in order to find it (on the race). So as I tuned into this sermon I was blown away with everything matching up so perfectly, but then, near the end of the sermon as the pastor began to close, he stopped and said “I know some of you may be at a cross roads with decisions, but you need to say yes. Deny yourself and take up your cross.”
So what did I do? As soon as the service let out I contacted TWR saying I would like to reschedule my interview. To my surprise there was no question whatsoever as to why I needed to reschedule or why I didn’t answer the phone the first time. It all seemingly fell into place. During this time of waiting for my interview once again, I had prayed and asked God for a sign. I had been feeling lead and called to do this, and wanted affirmation that this truly was supposed to be my journey.
Well, lets rewind once again! Back in 2015 I had joined a church as a youth, and shortly after they were going to youth camp. This of course was months in preparation, long before I got there. Lots of time and fundraising had gone into the youth group getting ready to leave for this camp. Of course I would have liked to go but sadly there was no way I could. Fast forward to the night before they were leaving. I got a call saying that unexpectedly a girl had to drop out and couldn’t go due to a family emergency, and there was one spot available, completely paid for. And so I went. Turns out that the camp that I surprisingly went to would be the time and place that I got saved at.
Fast forward to present day. I have my phone interview. It goes extremely well, and they tell me I should hear from them within the next five to seven business days. I get a text an hour after, asking to speak with me again the following day. The day comes around and its my acceptance call. Im talking to them on the phone and I’m extremely excited and then they tell me that there is one spot left on the route I wanted to take. Out of the 6 different routes there are, the one that I wanted and the one that I applied for is the ONLY one that had one. spot. left. Coincidence? Absolutely not. There are no coincidences when it comes to God. That was my affirmation. That was my confirmation. That was the sign I asked for.
God waited for me to get it together and now that I have it all together, He’s sending me. I am going to spread the love of Christ to so many souls who probably haven’t even heard that name before. I am going to be a disciple. I am going to spread the gospel. He is faithful, and He is going to use me and show me what I’m meant to do. I ran away from my call, and He turned me around and said “You can’t run from me.”
