The First night of training camp we were all told to drop every expectation we had and to be open to what was to come. Until this week I never really understood the idea or had truly let go. During Launch this week we stayed in a church in the middle of a Hispanic neighborhood in Gainesville, Ga. During these 3-4 days we had one shower, our meals consisted of tacos, and we had lots of worship and learning sessions. I thought I had begun to let go of all expectations until I came face to face with them. Friday morning was our Launch day. It was our day to set out and blaze a trail, our day to begin the journey to Europe.
Atlanta was our first stop and we started having slight troubles already. We got them all worked out and soon found ourselves in New York only to realize our plane to Poland had been delayed for 3 hours! This delay meant that we would miss our connecting flight to Bucharest. Our Leader talked to the airline and they soon decided to call Warsaw, Poland. During this time we began to pray as a team and ask God to open doors. A few minutes later the phone rang and the lady said, “Warsaw will wait for you.” We hopped on board our plane from JFK to Warsaw at about 940 pm and landed in Poland at noon local time. I now sit in Warsaw at the airport ready to catch our next flight to Munich and then Bucharest. We didn’t catch our original flight, but they re-routed us through another country and gave us free meals for the wait. God is good!
Let’s be real, I didn’t expect to be in a church in a Hispanic community for Launch. I also did not expect my first travel day on the race would be wacky coming from the states, but God has it in for us. He wants us to solely depend upon him! Who needs a schedule? He WILL provide and he will open doors. All he wants me to do is drop my expectations and be confident in his will! I have learned that!
I also learned to drop all negativity and doubt. I cast it out and it has no place in my life. As I listened to Allison speak one day at Launch, what she said really started to hit home. She said that this journey would be what we wanted it to be. It would be up to us to determine how we see each day. We need stay positive through all the rough times or when things seem to be going wrong and see who we really are in Christ and what he has made us. He has brought us here for a reason and he will prove faithful. On the other end we can grumble and complain and decide to just sit, but this is when we won’t make a difference at all. One of my teammates pointed out that when we are negative it has an impact on those around us. This negativity can pull them down with us and try to skew their vision. There is no other way to live this race or to live life than through losing our expectations and keeping a positive mindset.
To clarify dropping expectations, this does not mean that I don’t have things that I want God to do! That is Faith. I have faith and I KNOW that God is going to do great things, but I don’t have expectations. I don’t expect everything to run smoothly. I don’t expect every travel arrangement to be the best or on time. I don’t expect to have running water or great food. I don’t expect to have great sleeping arrangements. BUT YOU CAN EXPECT me to be in action, to not just sit around, and to have a great attitude.
