In this life we seek comfort to the max. We sit in numerous “Lazy-Boys” before we pick out the right one for our rear, we crave that special food that just hits the spot on our bad days, and we avoid situations that make us feel uneasy or awkward. My life has had its comfortable “Lazy-Boy” times and then I’ve been through some times were I had to sit on the concrete floor for way longer than I wanted or intended. But through it all God has taught me some awesome things that I know I would not have learned if I was not on that uncomfortable ground.
My journey is made up of decisions of picking out the comfort and diving into the uncomfortable, so I can go where I know God will teach me and then He can use me. This journey started with small decisions, like picking the “uncool” things to do over the bandwagon ideas. Then those decisions progressed with choosing a college and then jobs and now a mission trip!
It’s crazy to look back and see how God has woven throughout my life this thread of missions and preparing my heart for this calling. In high school God began to mold my heart with a servant foundation (Mark 10:45). I loved doing local mission projects with my youth group and then I began to plan and organize some events with my school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Then our FCA leadership team had a crazy idea (or it seemed at the time) to do a oversees mission trip. For my small town high school that was something unheard of, it was a long-shot. Then the craziest thing happened it… actually worked! God provided a youth pastor, Scott Yaikow and his wife, who volunteered to go with us and helped us raise support. We got approved and with the community's support all funds were raised. Our team flew to Belize, where it seemed God worked in our lives more than the children and adults we went to minister to. We had no idea what we were getting into, but God's provision and plan for that trip was so incredible. I jumped all in with the hope that it was God's plan and from that decision on, I watched God make the trip happen through unimaginable circumstances. Through the process I began to learn His voice. This is still one of my biggest prayers, that I will learn to hear his voice clearly, because I want to go where he leads and know what He has for me. (Psalm 105:4 )
From high school on, God has continued to just lay on my heart mission work right where I am, in college or on my softball team or in a local church. For me it became comfortable to volunteer or help out, not that it wasn’t challenging but just in my comfortable range. Then I applied to be a summer counselor at a camp. The job description was to do everything from teach kids to clean toilets. But the scary part was I would be responsible for teenagers and have to be available to minister for whatever they needed. That was something different it was more than working or helping it was putting myself in their lives and being there for them. This scared me what if I didn’t know what to say or said the wrong thing. It was nothing like mowing grass or smiling as I helped someone. But that voice that I was slowly learning just told me over and over “It’s not about you and the words you say it’s about Me and my love being shown.” He didn't care I was not comfortable with conversation He just wanted me to show his love and He would provide… and He did. So now I am about to walk into my third summer as a counselor and each summer has been completely different where God pulls me more and more out of my comfort zone so I have to depend on Him totally.
Last summer (summer 2012), God really began to put something in my head. It again was that voice that I wanted to learn more of, that voice that sometimes I think is my own mind racing, but this time I knew it wasn’t me. This time God was telling me there’s more out there for you! I began to see that yet again, I was in comfortable place. Not to say that being a camp counselor is easy to me (because it definetly is not) but I was comfortable thinking I could do it on my own. That’s when God brought back my desire for travel, my love for people, and my heart for service all to the front of my mind. Then I remembered this trip called the World Race. I found this trip when searching for mission trip when I was still in High School. I remember seeing it on a google search and thinking that it would be really cool, but then I moved on because I thought I would never be able to do that. But last year the race keep coming up in my thoughts and I couldn’t brush them off. I knew this was God’s voice not mine, because my thoughts would not be all about leaving the country, my family, and friends for 11 months that’s defiantly not a comfortable life. So I made it my purpose to seek God’s face out and really hear from Him during the summer. I had all intentions to pray and just learn His intentions and plans. And through some unforeseen circumstances the guy I was paired with for the summer had to quit 3 days before we started camp and he was replaced a “new” guy I new nothing about! When we first meet we said our hellos and one of the first things he said to me was “I went on the World Race.” I was stopped in my tracks in amazement. For one thing I had never meet any one who even knew what the World Race was, then to be paired with a guy who went on it! God was working some crazy things, nobody even knew that I was praying about World Race. It was just that bluntness of God going see Lauren this is what I have for you so stop delaying what you know is already true!
So that was my long story of how God got me to this 11 month race. God just keep making things happen that kept making it more and more clear that the Race was where He was and still is leading me. It is so great because this is one of the first times I know it’s God plan for me. God is calling me out of the comfortable world I try to build around me with situations I know how to handle and wanting me to jump head first into the uncomfortable, the unknown, where all I know is God and that is enough.
Who needs comfort … I want Jesus!
