Why the World Race?

Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to share my heart and how the Lord is moving in me and in the lives of those around me over the next year!

You may be wondering: Why the World Race? And that is definitely a fair question, especially considering the uncertainty in our world right now. But in order to answer this question, I need to walk you through the past few years.

For the first 2.5 years out of college, I had what most would call “a very well put-together life.” I was living with 2 of my best friends from college, teaching the sweetest 1^st graders, and living comfortably within the parameters of things that I knew well. The Lord was so good to provide me a place to live, a dream job, family close by, and friends to enjoy life with straight out of college! As time passed after college, I began to settle into a comfortable life. As one who thrives off of routine, I wasn’t seeking out opportunities to grow, to change. I was hoping to continue along this comfortable path with nothing new and nothing out of the ordinary.

Then in last November, I had to move away from living with my good friends and into a new house with strangers. I struggled to find my new normal, my new routine. But once again, the Lord proved faithful and by February I was cruisin’ again! Then one February afternoon I was enjoying the brisk weather on a solo run outside. I was listening to an episode of the Girls’ Night podcast, when Stephanie May Wilson’s words started to tug at my heart. She spoke about how we often grow the most when we are uncomfortable. This started to strike a chord in me as I realized that the past 2.5 years I had done almost nothing that made me uncomfortable. The Lord doesn’t always call us to be uncomfortable, but he doesn’t call us to always be comfortable either. Maybe it was time to seek out a season where I would be uncomfortable. So that night I began to pray. I prayed that the Lord would “throw a stone in the steady stream of my life that would cause me to truly and fully depend on Him.” Well, when you pray a prayer that bold – you’ve gotta be prepared that the Lord will answer it! And he did.

For me, the World Race is an opportunity to practice depending on the Lord wholly. I will be depending on him to provide financially for my trip, to provide daily necessities, to provide a team of believers that provide wisdom and encouragement along the way, and most importantly to provide opportunities to share his gospel around the world. I have often desired that the Lord would write my story like everyone else’s. And in the past, I have allowed this comparison to rob me of my true joy. But I have learned that the uniqueness of our stories simply proves the creativity of beauty of our Creator. So even though the World Race is an unconventional path, I know the Lord will use it to grow my story and my witness. I truly cannot wait to experience the Lord in new ways.

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading my first blog post. I look forward to sharing so much more with you in the coming months!