Going way back to the start of the World Race…applying for this grand adventure was a process in itself of trusting the Father with the story that He gave me. Trusting that the vision He gave me in the Fall of 2013 was going to come true in the Fall of 2014.
I got the call my last, first day of my undergraduate degree, that I was accepted to the World Race. The Lord was faithful, all the days of praying, all the doubt I had on the Lords call for my life was shattered and He continued to pour into me gently “trust me.”
The next step in being a long term missionary was to fundraise. Which looking back on it now, isn’t that much money but being a first timer at traveling the world in a long term missionary program, it was A LOT OF MONEY! I told myself in the time of 2013, that I wasn’t going to allow money to be something to hold me back from God’s plan for my life. In reality, if God wants something to happen He will make it happen because He is God!
From February-April of 2014, the year I was leaving, and three months before leaving all my comforts. I WAS FREAKING OUT! I wrote a blog about my Hurricane Hot Mess express, but my focus was not on what the Lord told me He was going to do out of trusting Him, but on was the world or America would tell me to freak out on. To give you a cool glimpse of how the Lord provides, here is a quick story.
In April, I was going to a woman conference and I invited a new friend to come with me and I was sharing with her my heart of the World Race and what the Lord had for me. At the end of this trip she gave me a $1,000 check to use for gear, shots, and supplies that I needed for the race. I hit the ground and wept, I wept because I knew that this was the Lord saying once again, “trust me.” Then in one week from three separate people, I received a total of $3,000. I continued to be in awe of what the Lord was doing!
From May to July (my launch date), I was super excited, but as most people would be I was nervous, I had fear, and I had doubt that I could actually make it 11 months. But just like a beautiful Father, the Lord reminded me to trust Him because He is with me and He has gone before me and is behind me protecting me.
As I am past the half way mark of my race, I must admit the first three months were a wrestle, but a wrestle I knew needed to happen in order for my faith in the Father to grow deeper and more intimate. I have come to the realization that trusting the Father can be such a beautiful thing! That when you simply open your hands, and say “okay, Lord, I trust you with this…” He continues to give you more. Because we are trusting the Father, He is giving us bigger and better task to further the Kingdom of God. The Father appoints YOU to fulfill those roles, all He is asking is for you to trust Him!
Month 7 there has been a little bit of thought of coming home and what life will look like after the World Race is over. I am expecting the same generic question you get after high school or college graduation, “what are you going to do now?” I was talking with my squad leader, and telling her the beauty in the response to that question, “I don’t know.” By saying that response I am handing over my trust to the Father, yes, it is true, I have no clue what I am going to do in 4 months when I come back to the United States, but my Father does. And I will wait patiently at His feet until He tells me to go where He needs me to be for His Kingdom. I am not living by the American standards of “what my life is supposed to look like by the age of 24”, but I am going off of what my Father wants and ask of me.
Take for instance the disciples of Jesus. Most of them were young men and women, who were working because that was their culture and what was expected of them. When Jesus came, all He had to say was “come”, and they did. Not questioning what they were going to be doing for the rest of their life, what they were going to eat, or wear, but they just went. Trusting Jesus that everything was going to be okay. In the end, God got the Glory in all of their lives, but one.
“While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brother, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ IMMEDIATELY they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. IMMEDIATELY they left the boat and their father and followed him.” Matthew 4:18-22
Every day we have a choice to trust the Father, and the reward is so sweet and is a beautiful picture of who God is and who YOU are as His child. Let Him lavish you in His goodness when we just simply trust the plans that He has for our lives. Don’t micromanage Him, don’t put Him in a box, but let God be God.
In It For Good With Him,
Hope
