It’s a new year on the World Race. And suddenly, nothing is the same.
Just like that, on January 1st, I said goodbye to the World Race I had known, and began a brand new journey around the world with new eyes, new people, and a new mission. 2017 looks nothing like 2016 did.
It was easy to sit back and let the World Race happen, and even in Month Three of this eleven-month journey, I was already starting to feel like coasting. I was getting the groove of this new World Race lifestyle, growing used to constant adjustment and having open expectations, and now the initial thrill towards what was once new started becoming a complacency towards what was now normal. But the Lord didn’t want that from me. So, as I watched in awe as colorful fireworks burst over the central square of Antigua, the Lord asked me to look at the year ahead with the same kind of wonder. The rush from watching the brilliant light that comes from setting something that was once dead on fire, and watching it explode.
2016 was a banner year for me. I got to have an amazing seven months living in the greatest city in the world, made wonderful memories with the best of friends, performed a short concert tour with friends, saw a million Broadway shows, performed in an original musical based on “Friends” (written by friends, performed with friends), joined the World Race, survived training camp, raised over $17,000, got placed on a team with seven new best friends, visited three countries across Latin America, and allowed God to do some amazing things in and through me by just saying yes.
in 2016, I saw God move in my life in greater ways than I had ever seen before. But the Lord wasn’t done with me yet. My “yes” to God in 2016 was not meant to carry over to 2017. God had some new things in store for me, and it required me to say “yes” all over again.
But it wasn’t just one thing God was asking me to say “yes” to. It was several.
The first “yes” the Lord asked me to take was the opportunity to be a Team Leader. For the past three months, I did ministry with a co-ed team led by another guy on our squad. Throughout that time with this team, God taught me a lot about my identity, and I grew through watching how God was leading my team leader Keaton even in times where I felt like I wanted to lead. I learned to surrender my control and my pride, and let God do what He needed to do through Keaton that would shape our team. And God, of course, came through every time. I started to think God would want me to take a backseat this next year, so that I could learn more about what it means to be a follower instead of a leader. But as it turned out, God decided to change my expectations, and give me a whole new role on this Race. And that change didn’t come without a whole lot of other changes.
Which leads me to my second “yes” – a brand new team of all guys. On my previous team, I lived with two guys and four girls. I really liked the co-ed team dynamic, because it allowed the small number of guys to feel like they were more close-knit, while also keeping the diversity of personalities and giftings that made our team strong. But this new team, comprised of all seven guys from our squad of fourty-three (yes, I know, there’s thirty-six women on our squad – WHERE ARE THE MEN??), was now mine to lead. And as excited as I was to take on this new leadership role, I was also intimidated knowing that I would need to lead six other men, each more than capable to be leaders. I was thrilled by the idea of getting to use my giftings and organization skills to lead my team in whatever the Lord had planned, but seeing the inherent strength in my brothers and new teammates caused me to wonder if I really had the kind of authority I needed to really lead them.
And then there was the third “yes” – a new ministry style. When I was offered the role of Team Leader, I was told that the month ahead would be an “ATL” month (or “Ask the Lord” month – yay Adventures in Missions and their many acronyms!), which meant that most of the ministry would be spirit-led. This was something that excited me, because I knew that part of the reason I joined the Race was to have these opportunities to let the Lord do some crazy stuff through being led by the Spirit. But later, when I found out that we would be doing “Unsung Heroes”, a month on every Race where teams enter into a country with no pre-assigned host, no lodging, no ministry assignments, and no purpose except to let the Lord guide us to new missionary hosts, my stomach started to churn. I realized that the ATL month I was so looking forward to was going to ask for a greater faith from me than I realize I had. As I started preparing for this month, I realized how much of my Race I had taken for granted all of the things that I had been handed without ever truly needing to trust the Lord. This month was going to ask me to trust Him in a whole new way than I was used to, or comfortable with, and I went in with lots of reservations.
The fourth “yes” was an even bigger surprise. Month Four on my Race was supposed to be in Guatemala, a country that I loved from visiting it as a kid, and was expecting to love doing ministry in. But, two weeks before leaving for Guatemala, our squad got an email stating that instead of doing ministry in Guatemala as planned, the guys team would be going to Belize! After staring at that part of the e-mail for a couple of minutes, and doing a quick Google search to figure out where the heck Belize was, I started to realize that my last month in Latin America would not look like the others. As I did more research, I found Belize was in fact very different from the rest of Latin America – their first language is English, the culture mirrors more of the Caribbean culture than Spanish, and we would be living in a lot warmer tropical weather than we were expecting in the chilly mountain villages of Guatemala. Spending a month in this new country would stand alone from the last three I spent in Latin America, and would be a bit of a jolt from the usual as we shifted our ministry into a completely different culture.
Putting each “yes” together, I saw that God was asking me to take an even bigger “yes”.
Would I say “yes” to Him?
For so much of my Race thus far, I would say I followed the Lord’s guidance, and obeyed what He was asking me to do. But the more the Race progressed, the more I realized that my desire to say “yes” to the Lord wasn’t just a one time thing. Joining the Race meant that I was committed to saying “yes” to God over and over, through situations simple and challenging. Just because I said “yes” to going around the World to share the Gospel, I realize now, doesn’t mean that I’m always willing to say “yes” to every challenging opportunity given to me.
And here I stood, looking at this giant “yes”. Would I be willing to step into a month where eyes would be on me to lead, where I’d be responsible to guide seven strong men of God, where I’d need to listen to God in a whole new way and trust Him to provide for everything we need, and where I’d be going into completely new territory unfamiliar to me? I imagined the scenario in which this entire month fell to crap, letting words and images of failure berate my self-confidence. But below all of that, bubbling under the surface, I heard the Lord’s voice saying one thing:
“Yes”.
God said “yes” to me. And His “yes” isn’t fallible like mine. It’s not birthed by selfish desires, or innocence, or limitations.
His “yes” is a promise. A promise to provide for me, to guide me, to give me confidence and strength, to be patient with me, and to deliver me to the other side with victory.
So I said “yes”. And 2017 kicked off with a bang.
As we crossed the border from Guatemala to Belize, I stared out the window at the verdant landscape passing by, and felt God instilling confidence into my being. I had no idea what we’d do when our bus got to Belize City. We had no contacts lined up, no place to stay that night, no idea where we would go first, no idea where to set our giant packs, and no idea what God wanted us to do there. But regardless, the Lord’s confidence strengthened my frame, and we pressed on into the city with expectation that the Lord would move.
And He did. Immediately upon arriving in Belize City, we found a coffee shop that let us set our bags down, order food, and use wifi. We searched for a hostel in town to stay in that night, but to no avail – every place was way out of our budget, and apparently the city was incredibly dangerous to stay in to begin with. But within an hour of our time at that coffee shop, I got a message on Facebook from a contact in Belmopan stating that they had room for my team and I to stay that night. As we jumped on that opportunity, praising God that He was taking care of us, we found out that not only was this host willing for us to stay at her place for that night, but there was space for us to stay there in Belmopan for the whole week! God provided miracle upon miracle to care for my team’s needs, taking us to a city with tons of amazing missionary contacts, and giving us a wonderful spirit of unity between the men of our team.
God is saying “yes” to me in 2017. And in turn, I’m saying “yes” to Him.
Because I know now that His “yes” means I have no reason to fear. I’m letting this new chapter of the Race be a landmark for me, a turning point in which I let the Lord take more of my heart, as I turn mine in trust to Him. He’s worthy, He’s able, and He’s got better plans for me in His will than I have in mine.
Walk into 2017 with confidence, knowing that He has you in His hands. Walk in faith, knowing that He is already going before you to make your path. Walk in humility, letting the Lord do a new thing in your life that He’s never done before. Walk in love, knowing that your Father loves you with His whole heart, and wants nothing but to see His child walk in victory.
God’s saying “yes” to you in 2017.
Will you say “yes” in return?
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
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