In the month leading up to our announcement I got the question “Kayla, both you and RJ have good jobs, you own your house, you have so much going for you…how can you give all of that up?” in many different forms.
YES – This is a thought that has crossed my mind hundreds of times over the 5 months as we’ve been praying over The World Race. We have both worked hard to get where we are, but in the end we strongly believe that everything we have belongs to God.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.”
Psalm 24:1
For the past year, I have been feeling weighted down by all the “stuff” that we have. I have never been a very materialistic person. I am always the last to pick up on trends or get the newest technology. But I, like most people, do like to own nice things, and we have been blessed to buy a house, own two nice cars, have closets that could clothe a small village, and so on. I am a very detail-oriented person by nature, and I like to have control over things.
One of these things is our finances. RJ has graciously given me the reins over our finances since we have been married, and I have micro-managed them to a T. I check our bank account daily, I have a spreadsheet with every bill that is auto-drafted each month, I get notifications each time our credit card is used…you get the picture. While it is obviously good to monitor your finances and manage your money well, what I began to notice was when I was the most hyper-vigilant and basically obsessed with our money, the less we seemed to have and the more stressed out I became. It was also spilling over into my relationship with RJ, because I would nag him about every little purchase, which was causing strain between us (understandably). Eventually I realized that the root of my problem was that something inside of me kept thinking, “what if He doesn’t provide next time?” Never once in my life has he ever let us go without, but by trying to control every penny, I was basically saying, “God, I got this.” But that’s not a burden that He has called me to carry.
“Here is the bottom line: do not worry about your life. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will drink. Don’t worry about how you clothe your body. Living is about more than merely eating, and the body is about more than dressing up. Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter. They don’t plant gardens. They do not sow or reap—and yet, they are always fed because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are even more precious to Him than a beautiful bird. If He looks after them, of course He will look after you.
Matthew 6:25-26
Of course I have heard this verse a million times, and I do believe it deep down, but was I living in the comfort of this verse? I realized that by obsessing over our bank account, I was not trusting God to truly take care of me. Now that does not mean that I should never check it or spend willy-nilly, but I know that if my eyes are focused on God and advancing his Kingdom, I can take the step out of the way and give him the room to provide!
All of this to say, the idea of selling our house, quitting our jobs, selling RJ’s car, selling or giving away most of what we own and storing the rest doesn’t scare me the way it would have two years or even six months ago. In this season of my life, the idea of cutting ties with the material world and living out of a backpack for a year is remarkably freeing. God doesn’t say that it is bad to have nice things or to make money, but the Bible does warn against loving money more than God:
“After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”
1 Timothy 6: 7-10
So to answer the question I have heard a hundred times – No, I am not worried about the things of this life that we will be giving up. I am incredibly excited to wake up every morning, seek God above everything else, and truly hear His voice and His calling, untethered from the distractions of this world.
I have felt called to missions for a while now, and have even attempted to go on a few mission trips, but for a myriad of reasons (expense, scheduling, etc.) they have never worked out. Every time I see someone spreading God’s word and advancing the Kingdom through good works, I feel that tug at my heart, “They are truly living for God.” I longed to make that sacrifice and when RJ told me about the World Race, I felt such peace about it. Every doubt or reason why we shouldn’t do it was overshadowed by the conviction I felt that God was providing this path for us, and that I was going to have a chance to finally say YES to that tugging at my heart.
People say, Why do the World Race? And my answer to that is Why Not?
Why not me? I am just as capable as the next person, and all it takes to do God’s work is to say yes. I am not doing the World Race through my own strength, because nothing I do in this life is through my own strength.
“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13
