well friends, this is my first post. i’ve thought long and hard about “what do i write on my first post???” (just ask my mom)
something that has been on my heart lately are some lyrics to a song that i have listened to over and over again.
“My forever in Your heart
Your steps I will follow
I put my trust in who You are
Your voice is my arrow”
your voice is my arrow. let that sink in for a second. how powerful is that simple statement? the Lord speaks to us daily, hourly, and His voice is our arrow. i can’t quite put words to what that means to me, but boy is it powerful.
the chorus is this:
“I will lift my eyes to things unseen
To the promise in Your victory
And I will build my life on the mystery
Of where You call me, and I will go
Into the unknown”
maybe it’s the incredibly high notes that Mariah from Mosaic MSC hits in the chorus or maybe it’s the message behind the words. “of where you call me, and i will go into the unknown”
if you ask me, going to 11 different countries is absolutely going into the unknown. is the Lord calling me? 100%. so here i go.
i think everyone that ends up on the Race has some sort of story of how they ended up in this position. one doesn’t just “happen” to end up traveling to 11 different countries in 11 months living out of a backpack (if you do, holla at me). there’s always a little Jesus story in there somewhere. i don’t have much of a story; i sort of did just end up with this being my next step in life and my walk with the Lord, but there is a little bit of a back story.
i’m currently in a masters program at the medical university of south carolina pursuing my masters in public health, that i hope to one day use in the mission field somewhere. to finish this program we have to have an internship. (coming up next, im going to be incredibly transparent with yall because you are sending me on this amazing journey and jesus loves transparency).
i was dating a boy. a wonderful boy. he was perfect, more than i could have ever asked for or prayed for or wished for. we met on a mission trip to Uganda, my most favorite place on earth. like how perfect is that, meeting someone on a mission trip? my literal dream. he treated me like a princess, like one of God’s beloved children. we dated doing long distance. he lives in virginia and i live in charleston. i had planned on doing my internship up in virginia in the fall and eventually moving up there. that was the tentative plan.
things were going perfectly, and one day out of the blue, every bit of that was gone. he was there one day and gone the next. just like that. the snap of a finger. that’s just one example of how the Lord has made it so incredibly evident that His plans are far greater than ours.
so then i was left with a very blank slate, a painfully blank slate. i had no direction. i live in south carolina, and all of my family is in arkansas. lots of my friends are in oklahoma where i went to undergrad. i felt like i was just a body floating, that i had no purpose. where would i go next? what do i do? so many questions filled my head that i had not a clue of what the answer was to any of them.
the last couple of years, i have lived my life with the firm belief that not knowing what is next is perfectly okay. i’ve been living in the moment. 5 days after graduating from undergrad i moved from oklahoma to south carolina where i knew not a soul. and then guess what happened?! i ended up staying here for grad school instead of going back to where my comfort zone was, where my people were. i wouldn’t change that decision for the world. i decide not to make plans because i know that i have almost never have in mind what the Lord has in mind for me. he really is kind of funny in that way, like sometimes i actually laugh and think “wow, Jesus you are HILARIOUS” and chuckle to myself (which isn’t out of the ordinary)
somehow along the path of healing from this loss and just utter confusion of the stage of life i was in, the World Race appeared in my vision of the future. i was like eh, maybe i’ll apply. i hesitated. why? i could not tell you. it’s not like i had anything to lose at this point – like seriously….nothing! so then i decided: i am going to apply for the Race, it’s happening. then if i get accepted, i will go.
and guess what happened?! I GOT ACCEPTED.
missions have been a passion of mine for as long as i can remember. living in a way that most people think sounds awful, absolutely exhilarates me. visiting the places of the earth that no one wants to go to because of how horrible it seems or what goes on there, those are the places i want to visit. that’s where Jesus’s love needs to be. and i want nothing more than to be the vehicle that carries His love there.
so here i am. living my best life trying to do exactly what the Lord has planned for me in this moment. not five minutes from now, not five months from now, but here right now. because that’s what matters.
please follow this journey with me – i can promise you that it will be absolutely nothing but incredible, and i cannot wait to share every step of the way with each of one of you sweet, sweet souls.
much love and fist bumps,
mags.
