This is a testimony that I am sharing at church this weekend so I thought I should just share it too!!
Before coming on the World Race, I had a relationship with God but I always saw him as someone who was sitting on his thrown pointing his finger at me, telling me all the things that I did wrong. I saw him as someone who just put me on earth for me to love him and be perfect. I could not do anything wrong or he would not love me anymore.
While being on the World Race, I have learned that I have put God in a box and that he is not that way at all. He is so loving and kind and only wants what is best for me. When I do something wrong he does not love me less or even stop loving me. He loves me always and he is not confined to how I feel about him. I can feel far away from him but it is not he who has moved, but I.
So last month, my team was working at a school and one day the teachers who were with us decided that we were going to get food from a restaurant down the street from the school. I was not having that day; I was just in a bad mood from the time I woke up. Also, I have been struggling with God’s tangible love for me. So at lunchtime we go to this restaurant and we are given lunch and I wasn’t eating much of the meat because there wasn’t much on the bone and it was kind of gross if I am being honest. As I am sitting there trying to eat this chicken my hosts see that I am not eating much and they go get me some other food. Which was actually grosser, if I am being honest. During this time my teammates decided that they were going to joke with me about not being able to eat either of the foods that I was given and it really upset me. So in my head I said to Jesus, “you and me are going to have a long talk later about this.”
Ok, so you are probably thinking how does this make me God’s favorite? Well here’s where the story gets good. On the way to the restaurant I saw some playing cards on the ground and I thought to myself if they are there on the way back then I would pick one up. As we were leaving lunch I said to Jesus, “it would be so cool if the card I picked up was the Ace of Spades.” The trump card. Just one card out of all 52 of them. So I pick up the first card and it is just a random card from the deck. Then I see the next card and decide to pick it up and what do you know?! It’s the Ace of Spades. I started jumping and yelling that I was God’s favorite.
This is why I felt like I was God’s favorite. I felt like I was his favorite because he listened to me and showed me he cared in a tangible way. I was having a terrible day and then all of the sudden it did a 180 because of this. I’m not saying that God always shows me his love in this way, as great as it would be, but it was what I needed in that moment and God showed up. And showed me that he loves me and I’m his favorite.
Thank you so much to all of you who have supported me through prayers and other means. You all are amazing!! Please be praying for the Parent Vision Trip coming up and also for the end of the race. Pray for me to stay present! Love you all!!
