What does being called to serve mean? how was I called to serve God by doing the World Race. I talked some about this on the “about me” portion of my blog but I would like to go into more about how God called me and why I think this trip will be perfect for me at this time in my life.
I grew up in a christian family and we have been going to church every Sunday since I can remember. Periodically I remember missionaries coming to church and ether telling us about what they’re doing or asking for support. The one thing I remember from pretty much all of these people is that they seemed so 100% confident that they were doing what God wants them to do. Almost like He was standing right in front of them explaining it word for word. As I got older and my faith became my own and not just what I believe because that what my mom and dad wanted, I became jealous of that 100% confidence. I knew what I believe was true and I was praying and reading the bible but I had never felt that I knew for sure I was doing exactly what God wanted me to do. In college my walk struggled and I really knew that I wasn’t doing what God wanted me to do. I ending up getting back on the right track at the end and after college but there was still one thing missing. The thing that I think that was missing for me was that I was never completely open and trusting to let Gods will happen in my life. I always kept what I thought was best for me at the top of my list.
Coming out of college I was so confident that I would find the perfect job and everything would just be downhill from there. I was very wrong, not only was finding a job very hard and frustrating I wasn’t even sure if I was applying for jobs that I wanted. And I for sure had no idea what I wanted to do for the rest of my life! Looking back now I know applying, failing and getting turned down for all these jobs is exactly what God wanted me to experience. I ended up getting a really good internship but it was only short term and I was back job searching only a few weeks after starting the internship. I finally hit a breaking point where I didn’t even want to apply for any more jobs because I didn’t know if I even wanted the jobs I was aping for. That’s the point I turned it all over to God. I prayed about it every day, that His will in my life be done and that he would show me what that was and what that looked like. I was reluctant to listen at first because He was calling me to serve him, I could feel it and I kept telling myself I’m not right for that (like I knew better than Him haha). I finally listened, so I changed my prayer to, how do you want me to serve you? It couldn’t have been more than a few days later that I randomly thought about something that I hadn’t thought of in a long time. It was the World Race, I didn’t know that’s what it was called at the time I just knew that it was a trip a friends brother had done all over the world.
After doing a little research it was pretty clear I needed to apply for the World Race ASAP. The day that I got excepted for the race was the day that I found out a really good friend of mine from high school was doing the Race the exact same route and everything as me. We had even been talking earlier that day about completely different things both not knowing that we were doing the exact same race. The way I found out was my mom was talking to the mom of the friend that had done the trip before me so my mom found out through her and then told me. I don’t know about you but I think that’s pretty amazing that we had been talking earlier that day but we didn’t mention the Race then I found out through my mom later. It ending but being a great relief for both of us that we knew someone else on the trip and we could help each other get ready.
It was soon after that I realized I had that 100% confidence that I had wanted so badly in my life before. And every step along the way of this process is gets even more and more clear that I am doing exactly what God wants. All I had to do the whole time is trust in Him completely and remember what I think is best isn’t what He knows is best. That’s what I think being call to serve means. It doesn’t always mean traveling the world to minister to people. It could just mean giving your life completely over to Him and dong exactly what he wants you to do.
