Do you ever step back and look at your life and realize it's going nothing like you planned?
That's basically been the theme of my life this past year.
As a kid, I had my whole life planned out, and it was perfect. I would find my husband at the age of 16, because, as you know, you're completely mature and grown up once you hit 16. We would date through college, he would be a business man or maybe a pastor, and I would a successful chef at the most popular restaurant, until we decided to have kids, then I would turn into the perfect stay at home soccer mom, with a cake business on the side.
Pretty realistic, eh?
As I grew older, expectations changed, I was willing to bend a little on the details, but if you would have told my high school self that when I was 21 I would be single, still living with my parents, and only have an associates degree in English from community college, I probably would have slapped you.
But that's where I am! In the fall of 2012 I knew that going back for my bachelors was just not something I needed to do yet, I knew God was calling me to something else. I researched several options. I looked at going out of the country for Bible classes, or serving with The International Mission Board for a few years, but nothing felt right or seemed to work out. I began to get frustrated with God. Everyone around me was living the most exciting phase of their lives! Engagements, marriages, graduations, internships, pregnancies and great job opportunites were happening to everyone else, and I had no idea what God wanted me to do or where to go next.
My frustration heightened as I applied for different job opportunities within the company I work at and was turned down for all of them.
Then one day at work, I got an email from my boss. Her daughter, Jessa Grindell, is on the World Race and she had sent me an update from her blog. Jessa's prayer card is on our fridge, I had been saying little prayers for her for months now each time I walked by. I thought what she was doing was a cool opportunity, but never really thought twice about it. While reading her update that day, I felt a stirring in my heart. I felt God's presence and I heard one word: Apply.
But… I don't camp.
I think your'e mistaking me for someone else God, I REALLY don't camp. Hiking is the equivelant of going to the dentist and trying to put up a tent is like someone explaining Calculus in German to me.
So I pulled the "I'll pray about it card". Have you ever pulled that card with God when you KNOW that He's telling you to do something? It never works. That night I had dinner with my best friend, and I told her about the Race and that I felt like God was telling me to apply, but that I was praying about it. She looked me squarely in the eye and bluntly said "Why? If you feel like God is calling you to this, Apply! Now! If He has other plans for you, He will shut the door on this. You need to apply! "
So I did, And I began to pray for God to not let me get accepted if it wasn't His will. In the week before my phone interview, I was on the World Race site every single day reading blogs of what God was doing around the world through racers, and I knew this is what I was called to do. Words cannot express how excited I am to have the opportunity to do this. Our God is is amazing, and He is doing incredible things around the world, and I am soooooo excited to be a part of it!
