"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” -Matthew 16:24
Jesus makes it crystal clear what it means to follow Him. It all begins with utterly loosing ourselves and pursuing Him and His will at all costs. You may be reading this and thinking, duh Shelby, I’ve heard this before. But my question isn’t have you heard it, but rather, what are you doing about it?
This is the question that Jesus asked me almost three years ago while I was in the Philippines. It was my first time away from America, my first time away from my family, and my first taste of absolute poverty. This experience changed the course of my life forever, and I am grateful for that much needed change in my life, in my heart, in my attitude, and in my relationship with Jesus.
With that being said, change, no matter how essential, is never easy. Change hurts, change takes courage, change takes boldness, change takes work. I promise as you are reading this I am still changing, because God is continually chipping more of Shelby away from my life so that there is room for more of him.
It was there in the Philippines that I truly understood what it meant to follow Jesus. It meant giving up my plans, for His plans; it meant giving up my desires, for His desires, it meant dying to myself and letting Christ live within me. My life is not my own, and I began to understand what this meant and what it looked like.
Jesus call is the same for all His children: it’s a call to die. But, the great thing is when we die to ourselves we allow Christ to live through us, which makes life more fulfilling than anything this world could ever offer us. If we’re still here that’s a great indicator that God isn’t done with us yet!
While our calling is the same, each calling leads us down different roads. The World Race is my road for now, and while I don’t know what the future holds, I do know that God does and that He will show me when I am ready to know. That’s the funny thing about God, He knows what information we can handle, so He gives us piece by piece what we need to know to accomplish the task he has before us.
If you were to tell me last year that I would be going on the World Race and traveling to 11 different countries in 11 months I would have laughed in your face. That’s how I know it’s from God: it was totally unexpected, totally unimaginable, and to some it sounds totally crazy. That’s the way God likes it.
Excitement doesn’t begin to explain how I feel about the World Race. I’m so honored and so humbled and so thrilled that God called me specifically to this journey. I have no doubt that He will use this experience to continue to shape me into the woman that He wants me to be.
As you are reading this, know that I am grateful that you are joining with me as we watch what God is going to do! I know that I couldn’t do this without the adamant prayers of each of you, so thank you for being my prayer warriors! In addition to prayer warriors, I also am in need of support warriors. I have $15,500 to raise for this next step that God has for me with the World Race. Many of you are looking at that number and thinking I’m crazy, and you’re right, but I promise that God’s plans never lack God’s provision.
How you can help right now:
-Pray with me as I try to find location/sponsors for my 5K race in September
-Donating through the “Support Me” tab that’s located to the left of this page
-Contact me about buying my World Race T-shirt
To all of you that read this: Thank you & may God continue to call us all to die to ourselves so that He can use our lives to glorfiy Him!
