Control. That is a very big word; a word that I relied on myself for more than I did on God.
Right as I was committing to The World Race, I found out that I have Celiac Disease. Now for those of you who don’t know what Celiac Disease is, it is an autoimmune disease, meaning my body attacks itself. Because of this, I am unable to eat any amount of gluten. Gluten is any form of wheat, barley, oats, and rye. Whenever I consume even the smallest amount of gluten, it sets of a response in my body and my body attacks itself and destroys the villi in my intestine. The villi in my intestine absorb nutrients so without the villi I don’t absorb my food. Because of malabsorption and the destruction of cells, I am at an increased risk for cancer, and a bone or nerve disease.
So right as I was going to commit to The World Race, I find out I have Celiac Disease. Because of the strict diet I need to be on, I thought there was no way I would be able to do The World Race. So many people around the world rely on gluten as a main form of food and gluten is in EVERYTHING, from ketchup to chocolate to hamburgers. So after finding out, my dream of The World Race was immediately shot down and I said no. Well God ha other plans because throughout the next few months, through sermons at church, flipping through channels on the tv, Bible verses, and prayer, God told me He still needed me to go, regardless of my disease and diet. I was so hesitant and still doubted, but God continued to tell me to go. So I knew I needed to go. I signed up and got accepted. I knew that if God wanted me to go, He would provide for my every need. He would provide food for me to eat. I put my complete trust in Him, because that is all I could do. I was able to rest peacefully in that trust, knowing God was in control.
Upon leaving for the race, I did not worry about food and for the past 5 months God has been so faithful and has always provided. I have always had food and although it has been hard and food has sometimes been scarce, there has always been food. God has been so faithful to me and I know He always will. But something that I have learned since leaving, is that I gave God control of my food situation and thought I had given Him control of everything, but I soon learned that I was still hanging onto a thread of control I thought I had on my life.
(Part 2 coming soon)
