It has begun…
I
left this morning for the World Race.. ..AMAZING but extremely bittersweet! After
long and tearful goodbyes to all my loved ones (and by tearful.. I mean bawling
all day to the point of hiccupping, along with red puffy eyes and a headache),
I packed for the next 11 months, and surprising somehow fit it all in only 2
backpacks! (thank you Alex for coaching me on how to properly pack a backpack!)
There
are a few things that took me a while to realize, but I am earnestly asking the
Lord to help me accept them…..
·
Life
does not stop when I leave.
When I leave the
country for a long time, the loved ones that I left back at home keep on living.
Yes I am here to tell you that people will continue their lives with or without
you there. They get married when you
aren’t there, go to school when you aren’t there, they graduate when you aren’t
there, switch jobs while you aren’t there, and grow, mature, and experience
life while you aren’t there. I would LOVE more than anything to be there for
all these moments.. but there is no way that I can ask anybody to put their
life on pause while I am out experiencing and living mine. This is something
that is probably going to be the hardest for me. I knew that signing up for the
World Race that I would be sacrificing SOOOO many experiences and important
occasions/feats in people’s lives while I’m gone… but then “Perspective” came
over and smacked me real hard on the head and I realized that I am gaining sooooo much more by going to
the nations and loving people in the name of Jesus.
And this is where my absolutely amazing team comes into play. Our team name is “Considered Lost”… this is taken from
Philippians 3:8-11.
“Indeed, I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I
have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I
may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith- that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. “
Everything of this world that I am so upset and so heartbroken about missing is
“of this world”. Hmmmm.. . Going to a wedding in my left hand, and going to
India and sharing the gospel in my right hand. Yea… exactly… no comparison! The
loss of sacrificing these experiences that I would have had back at home is considered
“rubbish” compared to how God is going to shape and mold me and use me during
the World Race. Yes.. I am able to type all of this and put it up for everyone
to read.. but the hard part is coming to terms with this realization and
accepting this in my heart…. and actually being joyful about sacrificing my comfortable life with my loved ones for God’s Kingdom.
·
I
am going to be out of my comfort zone.
When I signed up
for the World Race.. the prayer that I prayed over and over again was simply
this.. “God, if you want me to do this around the World thingy.. I pray that
you pick me up and throw me out of my comfort zone. I want to grow, and I know
that the best and most effective way of doing this is to put me in challenging
situations and have to rely on You to get me through them…. So if this is Your
will.. then make me uncomfortable! “
Lesson learned…Be careful what you pray for it.. because you just might get it!
God decided to appoint me as a team leader.. a position that I would NEVER EVER
have volunteered for. I’m more of a soft
spoken kind of lady, one that likes to sit in the background, observe, and just
go with the flow. I am not one to step up, make decisions, and make myself
accountable for other individuals. Ohhhh God and His sense of humor J Of all the prayers he answered.. why this one?
What about the prayer for my cat that ran away to come home? Why not answer
that one, God?
I am walking into this blindly, not knowing exactly what the role as a leader
is supposed to look like… and after talking this through with
many other individuals, blindly and completely depending on God is the way to
approach this whole team leader thingy. He chooses and uses the meek and the
broken to do His work.
·
Last
but not least, no matter how much you pack.. your backpack will always be
stuffed completely full!
I cannot believe
how STUFFED my backpacks are. I honestly don’t think I can fit another pair of
socks in it. And if I decided to downgrade and take something out.. guess
what??… it will still be stuffed completely
full to the point where it is hard to zip it up! Also, after walking through
the airport looking like turtle with a backpack on my back and one on my
stomach. I’ve realized that my pants will never stay up. No point of trying to
pull them up… the weight of the backpack just drags them right back down! This
backpacking thing.. Definitely something that I am going to have to get used
to!! But I’m willing to learn!
This is going to be an
amazing experience….I’m ready for India now!
