My teammates and I had a discussion last night about our personality types, and specifically how we behave when it comes to a body of water. For example, do you dip your toes in first and check out the temperature of the water? Do you wade in? Or do you cannonball? My personal style is to decide first whether or not I am going to swim at all, then jump in; because when I commit so something I go about it full steam ahead and exemplify the expression,
"Go boldly in the direction of your dreams."
This has gotten me a lot of places in my life, good and bad. It has landed me in 110 degree weather in the middle of Death Valley California, on the verge of heatstroke and dehydration. It has landed me on a cruise in the Caribbean, drinking beer with the locals and snorkeling off Lover's Beach. It has landed me with a ring on my finger asking myself how am I gonna get out of this one? And it has landed me here, in Cape Town, South Africa, with a team of Jesus lovers, recovering alcoholics, children without shoes, people without teeth, and into the heart of my Lord and Savior, who knows me better than anyone. Finally seeking, believing, healing, and living the life that I dreamed of.
It has been amazing, this faith journey of mine. And I am only 3 months in! God continues to bring me to new heights and understandings of Him and His plan as I dig deeper. Oftentimes these cannonballs are scary as I don’t know what is underneath the water or exactly what the Lord has in store for the jump but each time I step out in faith He catches me and I am brought into new level of faith and understanding of His plan for me and the world around me. I now can say that I know what it means to have faith, and that I have it; a lot of it. I believe with my whole heart in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and in God the Father, and the Holy Ghost. The funny thing is that the more faith I have, the more amazing things I see. I put on my “faith goggles” so to speak and am able to see things from His perspective. When I do this he shows me things about myself, others, and His plan of salvation for us all.
Now as I continue this journey God is bringing me into something new. Trust. Now THIS is not easy for me. Classically, I have not been one to trust the Lord, others, and even myself at times. What do I know I ask myself? What do they know? I have had walls built around myself and my heart that display signs such as, “NONE SHALL PASS.” I have known that these walls needed to come down for years, but it is just too hard to come out and TRUST that others will not be swinging and trying to knock me down, and that I will come out of the ring alive. Even here I have found myself waiting for that punch in the gut, that blow that will take me down and put me in my place.
Lies. These are lies.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Here I am taught to live with expectancy of the great plans the Lord has for me, but his requires a level of trust in myself, others, and the Lord I have not had before. But as I continue to become more Christ like and work on these things I am getting there, and I am EXPECTING to get to new levels of trust, love, and joy every day.
1 Peter 1:21
Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.
On that note, I hit my next deadline! $11,000 towards the World Race in my support account. I am here until July! I don’t know how this happened. My truck still has not sold and as of last week I was freaking out wondering how I was going to hit the next mark. I filed my taxes last year and got only about $1,200 back. But somehow, this year, (paying less in mind you) I got nearly $3,000 back which is enough to cover me through July. Thank you to all who have helped support me so far and that have been on this journey with me in my blogs, emails, on the phone, etc. Your support and prayers mean so much and prayers are being answered every day. My heart is bursting with joy!
Also I am going to ask that if any of you feel lead to give or were planning on giving to me at some point, that you give to my teammate Mary instead. She is an amazing woman of God and such a blessing to the squad and team. She is struggling to meet her next deadline of $11,000 and as of this morning is $1,300 away. If she doesn’t hit it she may have to go home and I just know that it is not her time yet. Pray about it and if you want to help, go to her page, www.marysmith.theworldrace.org and donate from there. Love you all!
1 Peter 1:8
You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
Praise God and His Son Jesus Christ. Amen. 🙂
