“You are so strong and grounded in your faith to go on such a mission trip.”
Since joining the World Race, I have received this one comment more times than I am comfortable with. It is so easy to assume that someone bold enough to serve in eleven foreign countries for eleven months is highly courageous. The truth is – I am not strong enough to go on the World Race.
I was not strong enough as I curled up on the floor of my tent, holding back tears and fighting the urge to go home at training camp.
I was not strong enough as I gave into the lie of the enemy that I was not adequate enough to serve alongside my squad mates.
And I certainly was not strong enough as I hiked a grueling three miles on hot asphalt in the middle of the day with 30+ pounds of gear on my back.
I was never meant to be strong enough to serve on the World Race. I was meant to rely on the strength of One who is higher than I.
This is the beauty of living a life doing things that are not out of our own power but out of that of our Father’s. During training camp, I learned that living life in full abandonment is not always pretty. Each and everyday, I had to press into God’s presence in order to make it through to the next hour. But never once was He looking for me to be strong enough, He was just looking for me to be obedient. He wasn’t calling me to be the loudest during prayer or the first to finish a training exercise. He was calling me to do something outside of my own capabilities so that there could be beauty in Him being gloried in my weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 — But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God may be calling you to do something that is outside of your own human abilities and that’s okay. If we did everything out of our own strength, there would never be an opportunity for us to rely on Christ’s sovereignty and grace. It’s time that we stop tip toeing on the shores of life because we are afraid we won’t be able to swim in the deep. When we know who our strength comes from – there are no limits. So, jump in. The water is truly amazing.
