Obedience is defined as compliance with an order, request, law, or submission to another’s authority.
To live a life of obedience, you have to be obedient to what those you respect and follow call you to do. In my life, I strive to be obedient to what God calls me to do above all else.
Now if I think of all He’s called me to do, the majority of the time it is pretty easy for me to follow through with because I agree and understand why God is asking me to do it.
– Obedience was easy when I felt encouraged to join interning at my church youth group in order to connect more with the younger students because I was familiar with my youth group and wanted to join.
– Obedience was fun when it involved inviting friends over to gather and hang out in a safe and loving place because I enjoy being hospitable.
– Obedience was calming when I’m pushed to sit and soak in His word through worship music because I knew it would calm me down and point me back to my Father who loves me dearly.
But sometimes being obedient is hard and I struggle with it at first. However, shortly after (well sometimes it takes a lot longer) I realize obeying a difficult calling or ask is always worth it.
– Obedience was worried filled when I was called to remove my acceptance from college and do something else. However, then there was excitement in the new calling.
– Obedience was scary when I had to inform my future roommates that I no longer could hold up my end of the lease due to a new calling from God. However, that led to another God fearing woman to take my place in the apartment with great roommates.
– Obedience was hurtful when I felt I needed to break my summer job commitment in order to switch to something else which would allow me more time to be focused on what God was calling me into. However, it gave another person a new job and a heavy weight taken off my shoulders that I was never in charge of carrying.
If I’m honest with myself, there are many other ways being obedient to the Lord has brought fear, hesitation, and anger but in the end, I always find it worth it, especially when I sit with the Lord and learn more about how my obedience fits into His perfect plan.
Now you might be thinking “how does any of this reveal to us what’s next in your life?” Well very good question!
It’s because God taught me A LOT about obedience as He was revealing to me what would be next in my life once my Race was over.
In the first few weeks of Guatemala, I felt called to re-accept my offer to college and begin the process of going to school for elementary education with a special education endorsement. I emailed back and forth with advisors and joined group chats and paid my deposit. I found three great gals to live with in an apartment. I accepted a nanny job with a family near home. I was feeling great and was excited for what was to come when I would get home.
Then one day my squad leader came up to me and said “Paige, I think you need to consider applying to be an alumni team leader.”
I was so upset that I literally turned around and walked away from him. God had been showing me how college was my next step and was putting all the pieces together. I wanted that to be my plan, but this threw in a curve ball I was not expecting.
After a few deep breaths, I turned around to talk about it more with Taylor. I told him I would keep an open mind about it, but God had already planned out college for me.
Over the next few weeks, I wrestled this out with God. I sat in silence with Him. I prayed long and hard about it. I told Him I didn’t want this to be my plan, but I was trying to be open about it. I was frustrated about how “messy” it would get with stepping away from my lease and withdrawing my acceptance. I talked back and forth with my mentor and squad leaders. I made excuses why it wouldn’t work. I got random spurts of excitement about it. I discussed all the options with my parents at PVT. Lots of thought and prayer went into this, but finally, by the end of PVT, I decided I was going to apply to be an alumni team leader in Fall 2020.
I did this and a weight on my shoulders was lifted off. I struggled a lot with this but in the end, I decided being obedient to the Lord was way more important and valuable to me than how “messy” I thought it would be to change my plans.
Two months passed and an interview process later, I found out I got accepted to being an alumni team leader. But something was off. I felt hesitation on accepting my acceptance. So I wrestled it out with the Lord again and found out I was still trying to hold on to my plan a little bit. I thought I had fully let it go and gave it to God, but I think I still had a pinky hold on my plan. I didn’t want to let go because I was worried with a huge virus going around, I wouldn’t be able to launch and the plan would get “messy” again.
I sat with God and wrote out what I would be sacrificing and if I thought it was worth it. Spoiler alert: it’s worth it every single time to follow God’s plan for you even if it seems hard and unimaginable at the time. He has the plan for a reason: all things are possible when done with Him. So I prayed and took my pinky hold off my plan and surrendered it all to God in complete obedience.
I felt so much joy and now I can excitedly and joyfully say that I am going to be an alumni team leader for Gap C this fall!!
What does that mean?? I will be a team leader for one of the female teams for the first 3 months of their Race. I will help transition and disciple them into this new way of living and be there to support them in any way needed. As of right now, the plan is to be in Guatemala and Costa Rica!! Woot Woot!! However if international travel isn’t allowed in September when we launch, we’ll spend the first months in Gainesville, Georgia digging deeper into discipleship, serving, and growing in community. For this, I have been asked to fundraise $2,000 to cover all the costs for the 3 months of discipleship. Due to coming home unexpectedly early on my race, my fundraising goal is reduced from the normal goal of $3,000 which is a huge blessing from above! I have full and complete faith that God will provide through it all!!
I am beyond excited God has called me into this next season and am so thankful of the path we took to get here.
If you’d like to partner with me in this next season, prayer would be greatly appreciated for everyone to be obedient during this season and ready to learn from the journey ahead of us. Also, if you feel led to support me financially, you can do so here on my blog page!
I am doing “Adopt-A-Box” to raise my funds. If you feel led to donate, pick a box, or as many as you’d like, and donate that amount of money. You can either donate on my blog page or through Venmo- @PaigeCanova1 or we can find another way that works best for you! Just for fun, a few of the boxes are filled with some exciting things!! Any box that doesn’t have something in it, your name will be entered into a drawing for a fun souvenir from the trip for three lucky winners! When all of the boxes are adopted, I will be almost fully funded! Let me know if you have any questions or want to talk about my experiences!
*Updates will be posted on my Facebook page!
Thank you so much for supporting me through it all!!
Prayers and Hugs,
Paige :):):):)
