Calling vs. Concern: Why the World Race
Since I announced my participation in The World Race roughly a month ago, a lot of friends and family have voiced their concerns. Objections have ranged from the impracticality of the trip; to the basic dangers a traveler might face while venturing abroad. I can’t disagree with their opinions. I didn’t think about this trip at all before signing up to go. I simply didn’t need to. My call to help those in need far surpasses my personal concerns. The more I hear objections, the more excited I get to leave. The following is a short explanation why I can’t sit idle anymore, and why going on The World Race isn’t a decision I have made, but an unavoidable calling.
I wish I could say that my need to put myself in this precarious position first stemmed from my desire to do mission work. However, that’s not where my head was at. I simply craved adventure. I was bored. I looked at the past 26 years of my life and asked myself the question, “Will I be satisfied, if I live the next 26 years how I lived the first 26”. Perhaps this is an odd question for a young adult to ask himself, but I preferred being honest with myself earlier rather than later. I quickly answered my own question with a definitive and insurmountable “No”.
Make no mistake; I have had a wonderful life thus far. But the amount I have taken from the world far exceeds the amount I have given back. I have spent the last 26 years investing in myself. Perhaps my desire to give back is why I chose a profession in law enforcement. I truly love the job, and it is very rewarding. But the more I spend time in my newly acquired house, and fill it with “stuff”, the more I realize I am continuing to invest in myself, and not those that are truly in need.
So what could I do to satisfy a calling that was so blatantly from God that I couldn’t ignore it any longer? For a long time I told myself that whatever I would do, it would definitely not be mission work. Anything but mission work. I remember as a young teen in church stating, “I will do anything God calls me to do, except serve internationally”. At that age, I would have preferred to abandon the faith before doing something so reckless. I loved my comfortable bubble. However, my feelings on life and risk couldn’t be more different now. What first started as a calling to adventure quickly evolved into a calling to serve. To turn my love of adventure into something God could use.
Late one January night, I Googled “Adventure, International, World Missions”. Upon seeing the first result, “The World Race”, I lowered my head, and immediately knew what I needed to do. A flood of emotion hit me. I realized I would get to spend the next year of my life investing in something bigger than myself. I would be investing in my faith, community, the poor, the sick, and the abused. I would get to spend a year of my life overcome with horror, love, tragedy, and humility. I would push myself to my physical and emotional limits through tests of exhaustion, disease, poverty, and terror. I have never been more comfortable or resolute in anything else that I have embarked upon. I have no doubt that this is my purpose. It has become apparent to me that I am not designed to live in the comforts that I have been blessed with. I am designed to live in the discomfort others have been burdened with. And through aiding them in that burden, I have no doubt blessings will be in abundance.
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16
