Greetings! The race is over and I have just NOW remembered something I used to pray growing up. That prayer was, “I want to live in every major city in the world, but only for like a month or so.” A strange prayer, indeed, for a young girl. But, I’ve always had an insatiable thirst for adventure. And Jesus listened to the prayer of that sweet, naive, (probably) 11 year old girl and let me see some pretty incredible places.
In college, I studied abroad. You know what they say about those who have studied abroad… They spend the rest of their lives trying to work into conversation that they have studied abroad. I have done so seamlessly. But what a wonderful time it was indeed. And after my time in Denmark, I thought nothing possibly could top it.
But then I remembered… I follow Jesus.
Coming on the race, my only thing was, “I want to fall more in love with Jesus.”
It’s still all about Jesus. For right now, Jesus has decided that the place where I can fall in love with Him best is at home.
God took me to Hebrews 11 multiple times on the race. The passage has a bunch of “by faith’s.” It tells the story of multiple people in the Bible who never received their blessing, but believed it would come for future generations. They did things because they simply trusted Jesus and took Him at His word. They didn’t care about seeing the results. They just wanted to obey Him!
I love reading My Utmost for His Highest. Our first “official” day back in the states was March 19. And guess what verse Oswald had chosen for that day!!! An excerpt from Hebrews 11. Does God not have a sense of humor y’all!
This is some good word:
“Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason – a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in this world. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day in and day out consistency; a life of walking without fainting. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith – a faith, tested and true, built on the true God.”
There’s a song called Canvas and Clay and it says “you make all things work together for my future and for my good. You make all things work together for Your glory and for Your name.”
Notice how… yes, He makes all things work together for us because He is a good Father. BUT, ultimately, it’s all about Him. He’s doing a lot of things that I don’t understand right now. But I can trust that He knows what He’s doing, and I don’t have to know. His ways are higher than my ways, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts (Isaiah 55).
No doubt, I’m bummed that our journey had to be cut short. But I’m also super hopeful. I know that if I take Jesus at His word, just as all those people in Hebrews 11 did, I have something to look forward to.
He’s the great Maestro. That was cheesy. But let us look at the definition: “a great or distinguished figure in any sphere.” So like… in Romania, in Bulgaria, in Albania, in Greece… Jesus is still the distinguished figure there. He’s got His plans. He knows His people. He doesn’t need me to accomplish the things He is going to accomplish.
And for right now… “whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you are quite sure that He calls you to something else. Let your first care be to glorify God to the utmost of your power where you are. Fill your present sphere to His praise, and if He needs you in another, He will show it to you. This evening lay aside vexatious ambition, and embrace peaceful content” (Charles Spurgeon).
I trust Him. And I love Him. And that’s as complicated as it needs to be!
Now for some of my favorite photos from the race.
