In 11 days (including today) I will be in Atlanta where I will be launching for the World Race where I will go to 11 countries in 11 months.
As I have been preparing and beginning my goodbyes this past month, I can not begin to tell you the number of times I have been asked the question “Are you ready?”
Are you ready…
I honestly don’t know how to address that question. For the most part, yes. Of course I’m ready. I have all my shots. I have my visas for Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. I have all my gear. I am almost moved out of the house I have lived in the past two years. I’m excited. But how do I know if I’m really ready? I have lived in Tucson my whole life. I have grown to love this place and the people in it so dearly. I think I am ready to leave, but it’s also going to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do to leave all that I know behind and enter into this new and unknown adventure.
I have learned that my words never portray exactly what I want them to. So in honor of having 11 days left in Tucson, I’m going to let these 11 bible verses/passages speak for why I’m leaving for the World Race whether I’m ready or not.
• What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith have him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them. ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things they needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-16)
• Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 2:22,27)
• As each has received a gift, use it to serve another. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)
- Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
• For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)
• “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name” (Psalm 92:14)
• Do not say, I am only a youth; for to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 1:7)
• Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8)
•Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1b-2)
•You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself . (Matthew 22:30)
• Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)
For all of those reasons, it doesn’t matter how ready I may or may not be. I am going to leave all that I know behind and go on this crazy adventure to fulfill what God has called me to do. I don’t know what to expect or what is going to happen in this next year, but I’m excited to find out and to share my stories with all of you! I hope you enjoy following along with me on my adventures!
