Alright, y'all, I'm going to level with you for a minute.
I have never in my life opted to take a backpack on a trip if I knew that a suitcase was an option, and you can ask my friends, I don't do small suitcases. I just don't.
I am currently working on packing for a week into my pack. Training camp is in TWO DAYS. Later on I'll have to pack for a year in that same pack. There are days when I can't believe I actually signed up for this. It's a really nice, large backpack, but still, it's limited.
Just today, I was fretting about packing (instead of actually packing, whoops). And then I had (God gave me?) a revelation. Inside my backpack, there is nothing extraordinary. There are only some clothes, a tent, a journal, etc. There is nothing about anything in my backpack that can change the world or make someone's day or do anything remarkable. What gives my backpack life and meaning is that it will be a piece of home for a year. As I travel, it will mean everything to me to find clean clothing or a towel or my tent or whatever as I'm digging through my pack. Then I realized, I am exactly like my pack. On an average day, there is nothing amazing about me. I am a just a girl from a small town in North Carolina. I did not win American Idol (YET. *kidding*), I do not have an astounding career, I did not write a book that is loved deeply by millions, I did not win a Nobel prize, etc.
But God has directed my future for the next year. It consists of living out of a backpack and sleeping in a tent. And even though, like my pack, I'm limited, my God is not. There are examples in the Bible when God uses people of limited means and resources to accomplish great things for His glory (see: Moses, Rahab, Ruth, Esther, Any of the Prophets, Any of the Disciples, etc.). Jesus, our savior Himself, was a carpenter. The World Race is no different.
All of us, in the grand scheme of things, will probably be considered insignificant by people outside of our friends and family. God's perspective is different. His perspective is one of a Great storyteller who argues that every character and every part is important. My part is important because the people I'm going to serve and minister to, though they may be "outcasts" or "undesirables," their part is just as important as mine is to God. Just as my pack is important to me, the work God has set aside for my squad in these 11 countries is important to Him and to the people we serve. Like my pack, I am a vessel.
So, along with my pack, and several hundred other people, I will be going to training camp on Saturday. My prayer is that each of us will take the time to appreciate that God has brought us together in solidarity of purpose: to further His Kingdom. I pray that He will wreck our hearts so that they be consumed with the gospel, His love, and a love for people and places we have not yet encountered. Father, use us for Your glory!
[Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.] 2 Corinthians 4:1-12
Shout out to W Squad, my new family: Can't WAIT to meet y'all!
To non-racers reading this: Pray for us! And stay tuned for stories!
Grace and peace,
Sarah
