Hey everyone! I know my decision to go on World Race was a shock to most so, I thought I’d spend some time to write about why I’m going on the Race and how God has worked in my life to lead me to this point.
I’ve always struggled with picking out God’s voice amongst the noise of this world, doubting if it was calling or conscience that has led me to decisions. However, unlike in the past, I haven’t experienced doubt of my decision to pursue this 9 month journey on World Race. When I finally committed to the Race after LOTS of prayer, I felt an unexplainable and overwhelming sense of peace. Even when I start to freak out a little at the thought of raising over $16,000 and living a completely different lifestyle for 9 months in THREE different countries, I am reminded of, and still feel this peace that can only be explained as a calling of Christ.
But how did I even come to this decision? What led me to and, made me want to pursue World Race in the first place?
During my junior year of high school, I attended a church camp where I experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in ways that I had not before. After a week of countless hours of worship, fellowship and, prayer I heard the voice of God calling me into missions. At first, I expected this calling to be short term or a one time thing. However, as I’ve continued to grow in my walk with Christ I’ve come to realize that this calling is one for all believers on a recurring basis – we are to love and serve others as Christ did.
The calling placed on my heart at church camp helped push me to pursue local serving opportunities as well as, a week long mission trip to Haiti. These experiences opened my eyes and my heart to hardships of those within our local communities as well as, the hardships of other cultures. I began to learn how to love people with completely different backgrounds. I began to learn how to love and worship with others that spoke a completely different language. My passion for serving grew in these moments and has helped to lead me to pursue an opportunity where I will be able to spend nine months serving, loving, and worshiping with others around the world.
But why the Race now, in the middle of college? Even though I’ve loved my classes and have made amazing friendships since being at GCU, I’ve felt unsettled and great discontentment. While during freshman year much of this unease can be attributed to the newness of college life, the same unsettling feeling was carried into both the first and second semester of this past year. I’ve loved college, and my time and experiences at GCU have helped lead me to this point but, I’ve felt that I haven’t been doing what I was meant or called to do. I began to realize that I had stopped serving and made my GPA and school my idol, choosing my education over learning more about God’s endless love and mercy.
After a sermon on serving, I began to think about going on another mission trip, not knowing I would be pursuing one to this level of commitment. Within a few days, I came across World Race and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. But, is this really what God wanted me to do or, was I just losing it? As I began to pray and pray, and pray some more, God has shown me and confirmed to me continuously that this is the right path. Within the same week, a guest speaker at chapel preached a sermon that left me in tears and goosebumps. While I could write an entire blog post on how incredible and how much this sermon impacted me, I’ll try to keep it short : ).
This speaker focused on the passage of Acts 20:24 where it says “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” One of this speakers key points was that our lives matter way to much to us and that our gifts and blessings matter only to the point that it promotes the cross of Christ. Throughout this whole message I felt God speaking and confirming to me that the World Race is the path I am meant to go on. More often than not, we spend too much time caring about where we think our lives should go, instead of focusing on the direction God wants to take us.
While there have been so many more instances that God has used to lead me to and confirm the World Race, through it all He has shown His faithfulness and unending grace. I can’t wait to see how God uses and works through me over these nine months to show others His love.
