Pre-Race I thought I was this chill, go with the flow person who didn't need a plan or have a worry in the world.
I must have been completely unaware or in denial because I am learning that I am a worry wart and stress out easily when it comes to details and logistics that affect a group of people.
A little back story is that I was asked to be a team leader at the end of month 3.
When our squad leaders asked us to be team leaders my friend Jamie had written me a letter.
At the end of the letter was this verse "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done." accompanied by a disclaimer from her telling me that this was not just a verse for encouragement, but that God had specifically given her that verse to give to me.
Things got busy, the letter got filed away and I forgot all about the verse.
Fast forward to month 5 in the Philippines and this verse has quickly become my theme verse.
I have read this verse hundreds of times.
Seen it on coffee mugs, journal paper and had it told to me in times where I needed encouragement.
Honestly, to me, it had just become another Christian saying to be thrown around to make someone feel better.
God is showing me that when He put this verse in the Bible that it wasn't merely to be a slogan thrown on the back of a t-shirt but that He meant it.
He was serious and He wanted us to be people who pray instead of worry.
He calls us to pray because worrying doesn't change anything, but prayer absolutely changes things.
My team arrived to our ministry site and got briefed on what our month would look like and we found out that there were a variety of ministry opportunities for us to be part of.
That the place we were staying at was about a five minute drive from the ministry center.
Oh and all of our meals were at a third location that was a little drive past the place that we were staying at.
So we were working as a family of 7 with 7 different schedules, wants, needs and 5 different places with specific times that we all had to find our way by car to daily.
Logistical nightmare??
I think yes!
The worry wart in me came out 110%.
I was a mess and was so stressed about how we were going to make it all work.
I just knew there was no way we were going to be able to do it.
I fell asleep that night running schedules and trying to figure out how to make it work.
I also woke up at around 3am dreaming about scheduling.
In my half awake/half asleep state I got a little sassy and just said "this is not healthy. This is not the way this is going to go. It is going to work out and worrying about it isn't doing me any good. Really all it is doing is making me miserable. I am done with this."
Right after my pep talk to myself I recalled that verse and it all came together.
So I start praying "ok Jesus If this is real and you mean what you say make it happen. I am going to be amazed if this works out, but I don't know what else to do. I can't do it so you are going to have to make it work. Please!"
Guess what??
He has so far and I know he will continue to.
I don't know how it is working but everyone gets where they need to be when they need to be there and it is pretty much stress free.
It is just happening.
I am no longer a stressed out zombie walking around only being able to think about schedules.
This is just one example, but I am learning how much more powerful it is to pray about the things that can consume us with worry.
We serve a God who not only cares about the things that we worry over , but through prayer He helps us with them.
Gosh He is amazing!
