When people first hear that I’ve decided to go on the World Race, they usually ask one of two questions. “What’s that?” followed by, “So why did you decide to go on this?”
That question always makes me laugh a little, and also stops me cold in my tracks. If I don’t actually give them a puzzled stare, it feels like I do. They ask as if I could give an answer. As if I could put to words what was going on inside me. As if there was an easy explanation for going on this trip. As if I could put all the thoughts, feelings, prayers, concerns, etc. surrounding this decision into a simple one-sentence answer. You see, I heard about this trip a year and a half ago when a friend of mine told me he was going on it. From the moment I heard about it, I knew it was something I wanted to do. But my mind was far from being made up.
I guess it all goes back to when I was a child. You see, I grew up in what would be called a ‘typical Christian home’ … whatever that is. I’ve been attending church since I was five days old and truly believed that the answer to any question was your usual Sunday School answer: “Jesus”.
“What am I doing with my life?” Jesus will decide
“Why is the sky blue?” Jesus made it that way
“How did the moon get there?” Jesus put it there
“How does gravity work?” Jesus holds us down
“What’s 2 + 2?” Jesus
Those of you reading this that grew up in the church understand what I mean. As I got a little older I sought more in-depth answers to these questions, (I was always a very curious person) and realized that, while “Jesus” is the correct answer, He uses logic, science, and reason that can be explained. I learned that the sky is blue because our atmosphere has a different density than space, light is bent as it passes through, and the wavelength for blue is bent just perfectly that it is what we see. The moon didn’t “get there” from earth, but it is in space, and caught in earth’s gravitational pull just right that it orbits without actually falling down to the surface. Gravity works due to an inward force created by the spin of the earth. And 2 + 2 = 4.
However, the question that continually plagued me, and still gives me anxiety attacks from time to time, is the first one: What am I doing with my life?
This is the type of question that terrifies someone like me. Someone who is hardwired for facts, data, and following the scientific method. You can’t plug a bunch of numbers into an equation and figure out what direction your life is going to take you.
The last thing Jesus said to his disciples before returning to heaven was a very clear message: to preach his gospel throughout the world.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20)
We see this recurring theme all throughout the New Testament.
“Then [Jesus] said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’” (Matthew 9:37-38)
“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27)
“for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:12b-15a)
In another account of the story in Matthew 28, Jesus says to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) The word used here for “Go” is the Greek “πορεuω” which literally means: to lead over, carry over, transfer, to pursue the journey on which one has entered, to continue on one’s journey, to follow one, that is: to become his adherent. The beauty of this word has so captured my heart and called to me, that I have made Mark 16:15 my life’s verse.
The World Race is my πορεiα – my journey. In April, I will be graduating from Grand Valley State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Science with a minor in Spanish. I still plan on eventually going back to school, obtaining my MD (and possibly MPH) but for now, I need to get out of the rut I'm stuck in. I am so fed up with living a passive, easy, Christian life. I am called to πορεuω, and I can’t wait to see how God uses, teaches, and guides me through this journey.
