As far as this blog goes, if all you know about me is what you’ve read on here, you know nearly nothing about me and here’s the reason why: I wrote all the wrong things. In my last post, I wrote about the reasons I wanted to go on this trip. Those were all very true and they’re important to my calling, but there is a depth to my story. A depth that, if you only know me from what you’ve read here, you haven’t yet experienced. So here are the real reasons why I chose to go on this trip (and how they’re changing my life as I write this).
Number one.
I do not like school. However, I do love to learn, but I am a strong introvert and going to school everyday with constant interaction is extremely exhausting. I’ve been balancing work and school and friends and sports since I was 15. It can be overwhelming at times and I really felt that I needed a break. That was the whole reasoning behind my decision to take a year off. The choice to take a gap year came first. And then God found me later on down the road after my friend introduced to me to the World Race. There was no unmistakable purpose-fulfilling and ringing in the skies sign from God. I prayed long and hard for affirmation that this was right for me. In fact, I prayed long and hard that He was even listening to me at all.
Number two.
I wanted to travel the world. According to every adult I have come into contact with by this point in my life, you should travel while you’re young and you can. After hearing about the race, it seemed right up my alley. Travel and no school? Sounds like the place for me. And sure enough, it turned out to be. For those reasons and one more- perhaps the most important of them all. Love.
When I was little, my mom used to tell me I had a heart of gold. Sidenote: that’s number 3 on my list of favorite things. I would always give away my lunch money and let the mean kids get in front of me in line. Loving people came so naturally and so easily. However, I’ve grown up wanting to please. It led to some really scary moments of being taken advantage of and since then, I’ve learned to stand up for myself. Even so, I still try everyday to look for people who need a little love. I’ve read countless books on the right way to love, studied the Bible for months now on the sheer topic of love, and tried to execute what I’ve learned.
Here was my long-and-hard-prayed-for affirmation: I have moments of craving to love those people. When I think about seeing their faces for the very first time. My heart beats uncontrollably fast. I think about wrapping my arms around them and showing them that there is a love so much better than anything I so desperately want to provide for them here on earth. I think about carrying those little kids on my back as we explore their homes and try to get a sense of what it means to be living in that environment every single day. I want to go and show them that I love them. But Jesus loves them more than I can ever even begin to. His love is limitless.
That’s why I’ve chosen that word to help guide me throughout the preparation of this trip.
So yes, my last post was true, but it was statistical and not authentic.
Hello, my name is Lauren. And after reading this, we are no longer strangers.
Love your new friend,
Lauren
#limitless
1 John 4:7-11 – English Standard Version (ESV)
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
