I have always been deeply passionate about my faith and social justice, particularly concerning underprivileged children. Professionally, these passions have displayed themselves in a variety of ways: teaching in an inner city school, starting an SAT/ACT test preparation company with goals of serving foster children, working at a local community foundation connecting non-profits with much-needed resources.
Last summer, I began sensing the Lord asking me to broaden my perspective, to re-evaluate the framework within which I had been discerning His will for these passions, to question what my ultimate objectives had been.
He started this process by dramatically reminding me that the things of this world can be lost, found, given, or taken in an instant. He is the only thing that never changes and never leaves, the only thing that is ever actually secure. I began to desire to draw more and more from Him and less and less from anything else. I began to want to join in on His story for my life rather than strive to write my own.
That is when I realized that my mental framework was not being adjusted, but flipped permanently upside down.
I realized I genuinely believed God lived inside of me, talked to me all of the time, and could be trusted to direct me in a moment-by-moment way. Worldly comfort, success, and security no longer seemed like objectives worth centering my life around. God being glorified and me getting to experience more of Him began to seem like the only objectives worth pursuing, the only objectives worth encouraging others to pursue. Suffering became a potential blessing and freedom from anxiety, a feasible reality. With my roots dug more deeply into His love, I began to better understand the extent to which I needed Him, as well as just how possible anything or “all things” were in His strength.
While all of this was happening, I became familiar with Adventures in Missions and The World Race. I learned that participants were literally willing to go wherever God led. They were passionate about social justice and willing to love people through physical service. They were not putting Band-Aids on broken spirits and calling it “change”. They were being invited by the Lord to have their hands play a part in His eternal, transformational work around the world.
I took the application process slowly, praying each step of the way, “Do I step through this next door Lord, or was this just an Abraham/Issac situation where you simply wanted to see if I was willing?” Every time, He would send an unquestionable answer. By January, I had stepped through all of the doors and finally stopped asking Him to repeat Himself. This would definitely be the next adventure He would be taking me on.
