"What is the World Race?" I remember asking that same question when I first heard about it last summer.
"It's life-changing," my friend Melissa Gibson told me. "Anyone who has ever wanted to travel the world, serve God's children, and live a life of complete dependency on the Lord should go."
I have to admit, at the time, I really wanted to say, "Well, I'm already doing most of that. I've racked up plenty of frequent flier miles with my globe trotting tendencies, and I'm a teacher in a foreign country, so I work with kids…" But then I started to ask myself, Do I really live a life of complete dependency on the Lord?
The honest truth was… No.
I know there are many areas of my life that I have submitted to the Lord through the years, and there have certainly been many instances where I have had to be completely dependent on God. But there are also many days when I slip back into that falsely secure sense of self-reliant self-sufficiency, where I depend on the gifts He has given me rather than on the Giver of those gifts.
Several months ago, when I started fasting and praying about God's future for my life, knowing that my three years in Beijing were drawing to a close, I thought back to my conversation with Melissa. I asked the Lord to stretch my faith – to teach me how to live a life of complete abandonment to His plans and purposes. It was a scary request, but I know my God is faithful.
It was then that He began stirring in my heart a yearning to join the World Race… not only because of the opportunity to travel the world, or because of the opportunity to serve (although both of these definitely excite me)… but because it answered my cry to Him… that He would strip me of my dependencies upon myself… and draw me into a deeper trust of God in every aspect of my life. I admit – I'm excited to travel to eleven countries in eleven months. I love to travel, to experience new cultures, to serve God's children, and to see His Body move, live, and breathe across the world. But I am even more eager to let God strip me of me as I come to a place of total abandonment in the palm of His hands.
Earlier this year, God gave me the image of a clay pot being carved out by the hands of a potter. Like a jack-o-lantern, this pot was to be carved and emptied until it was thin enough for the light within it to shine forth. I felt like the Lord was telling me that I was that pot… and as He emptied me of me, scooping out every undesirable part, it would make more room for Him to fill me with His love… to fill me with His light… so that I can shine for Him, wherever in the world He leads me. I know that being carved out is a painful process, but I feel that being in the loving hands of the Master Potter is the best place that I can be.
One of my favorite passages is from Isaiah 43. It is a passage that the Lord spoke to me before I moved to China, and again when I started feeling His stirring in my heart to join the World Race:
"But now, this is what the LORD says – He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…Do not be afraid, for I am with you…Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf….You are my witnesses,' declares the LORD, 'and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He…I , even I, am the LORD, and apart from there is no Savior.'"
I believe it's God's calling on my life, to live completely dependent on Him, no matter what the cost, and I believe the World Race is one way He is going to be glorified in that respect. I can't wait to see what He does!
