When I was in school I thought I knew exactly what my life would look like one day. I thought that by 28 I would be married and settled in one place. I knew that I was most likely not going to use my major (Early Childhood Development and Education) so I figured that I would have my own little cafe, or bakery or at least be working toward that goal. I figured that by the age of 28 people had everything figured out. That somehow life would all just start clicking and make sense. I thought that the trajectory of the rest of my years on this earth would magically be revealed to me by now. Then the Lord did this crazy thing and asked me to go on the World Race, where I have found other people searching for the “more” that we feel like God has spoken over our lives.
This experience had been radically different that I could have ever imagined. If you are a future racer reading this, just know that no matter how prepared you think you are, your expectations will be blown out of the water. I read so many blogs, and watched so many videos about people’s experiences on the race so I thought I had a good idea of what I was jumping into. Now being 6 months into the race I am realizing more and more how different my actual experience is from my expectations. Any time I had a preconceived notion about what a country would look like or be like, I was always wrong. This world is so much bigger and better than I could have thought. People are people no matter where they live or what their social economic status is. Along the way I have met some really good, kind, generous, hospitable, and wonderful people, but I have also encountered some conniving, dishonest, greedy, and self seeking people. So to try and generalize a country’s population as good or bad is dumb, there is always a mixture of both. But from my experiences of traveling thus far, most people lean more on the positive side of the spectrum.
So now I am in India and again my expectations for this country have been unmet in the best ways. It is funny because before I even got to India, I had this idea that I could see myself living there. And now that I am here, I think that I was right. Now before you go and get any crazy ideas in your head, I have also pictured myself living in Peru and Argentina. Picturing myself living in these countries has got me thinking about what my life could look like. It has got me asking questions like what am I truly passionate about, what gifts has the Lord given me, and where might you be asking me to live, Lord? I’m only half way through my experience and I have fallen in love with 3 out of the 6 countries, so only God actually knows what will be next but I am excited to see what is revealed over the next 5 months. One of my big prayers for these next 5 months is that my next life step be revealed.
I don’t know if I will ever “settle” down in one location. So instead of thinking that I need to have the trajectory of my whole life figured out, I am instead just asking for the next step to be revealed. For God to be clear about where I should move and what He has made me passionate about. To give me a tangible step to move into and to stop worrying about what everyone else might think when I do it. I’m not here on this earth the please the humans around me I am here to please the Lord. So, God, I will go where you ask me to go, and I will do what you ask me to do.
