Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 5/6/2012
Ok I am going to be honest here. For the first time since I have started preparing for the World Race I am suddenly hit with a huge panic.
It came out of nowhere, but it seems like for the first time since I have started this venture, I am seeing raising $15,500 through the world’s eyes. I am starting to understand why people give me a crazy look when I tell them what I am going to do.
I don’t know if many people really believe this is going to happen.
And that is scary.
But there is this verse in the Bible that I am reminded of when I get scared.
“Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)
What does that even mean? Sometimes I think about that and struggle to understand it. How do you even get perfect love?
And then I remember that I already have it, that Christ’s love for me IS perfect. And I don’t really even understand everything that perfect love entails.
I start by thinking what I know of love.
The Bible says that love is
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16)
And when Jesus gives us His greatest commandment, He says this
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Luke 10:27)
I could go on and on about all of the verses in Bible that speak of love.
And most of us read it and think, of course, love is really obvious. It seems to be the “right” answer to everything.
But really how much do we really understand of this thing that can only be felt and given. What does it mean to love, and how does perfect love cast out fear?
This is what I know of love, what I have experienced.
Love is so powerful it can bring a hardened criminal to tears. Love is so gentle it makes a shy child open up. Love is so strong that it breaks down bondages people have lived for in years. Love is so fragile that one mistake can threaten to destroy it. Love is so comforting that it makes you feel at home in the most foreign situations. Love is so patient it will wait for years, hoping to be found. Love is so selfless that it gives the shirt of it’s own back. Love is joyous that you can’t wipe the smile off of your face. Love is so brave that it causes us to do crazy things.
I could go on.
When I think of way that God loves me it brings tears to my eyes.
How do I even describe it? The way that God makes me feel at home wherever I am. The way that I can feel his smile on me, or the comfort that brings courage, or the nudge that causes me to be a better person.
I think of the person that I was and the person I am now.
I think of the way the He relentlessly pursued me, to bring me to the place that I am today.
Somehow he turned a selfish, desperate for love, attention-seeking girl into a woman who is confident that her purpose here is to be a light. A woman who loves fully, takes risks in Jesus’ name and hears His voice. A woman who knows the beauty that God created her to be.
Oh, how incredibly blessed I have been.
I guess when I think about it, though I will never fully understand this concept of love, just beginning to understand it is enough.
And when I dwell in His love, my fear is erased.
Don’t you understand? He LOVES us! He died on the cross for us, He IS going to take care of us.
Perfect love, dwelling upon that concept that I can’t even fully understand, has completely driven away my fear.
So instead of letting fear rule my life, I will dwell in Christ’s love. I will seek it with everything that I have.
Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given.
~Mother Teresa
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 4/27/2012
I believe. I just do. And I can't help it.
And I don't want to.
I believe in the underdog. I believe in the power of love, the healing of laughter and the strength in pain. I believe that the best of people comes out in the worst of circumstances, I believe in the beauty of the scarred.
I believe in the nick of time, laughter at just the right moment, I believe in hugs that make you feel at home. I believe in dancing when the spirit moves you. I believe in divine appointments and God given words that can soften a heart.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe in following Him with everything that I have got. I believe that His plans are WAY better than mine. I believe that He will provide.
I believe that when the odds are stacked against you it only makes for a better story.
So are you guys ready to witness a really good story?
Because I am living one. God is writing the most incredible love story with my life. And I am so excited to share it with each and everyone of you.
I hope that when you read this, you can feel God's heart in it.
That you can somehow feel His love shining down on you, that somehow my words and experiences remind you of how wonderful God is. And if you don't know him, that maybe you would try Him out.
I hope that you can laugh at me, smile with me and empathize with the pain I'll feel.
I hope that my stories will inspire you to create your own. I hope that you fall madly in love with God, as I have.
I hope that you will recklessly abandon your life to God and see Him work.
But more than anything, I hope that this blog draws you to the lover of your soul and the creator of the universe.
And that somehow, my story will change yours.
But here is the thing. I can't do it on my own.
I just can't.
It is wonderfully humbling to know that there is absolutely no way that you can raise $15,500 by yourself. That there is no way this trip will mean anything for the kingdom unless I seek God every step of the way.
I need God to work, I need funding to come in. But more than that I need your prayers.
The Bible says that the prayer of a righteous person is both powerful and effective.
And I believe that.
I believe that God is going to use you guys to help create my story. That he is going to use you guys to send me on something that will change my life and the lives of those around me forever.
So I am asking for help. I am asking for you guys to talk to me and inspire me and support me of this crazy adventure I am about to go on.
So PLEASE pray for me, talk to me, support me, and laugh at me. Because I want to be your friend.
I asking you to be part of my story so that maybe I can be part of yours.
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 3/21/2012
Crazy.
That is what I feel most times.
Crazy to believe that God talks to me, crazy to not choose a career and settle down, crazy to believe in miracles, crazy to think that prayers work, crazy to believe that I can raise 15,500 to go on a trip around the world serving others, crazy to think that I can change the world with the Gospel. Crazy to believe that life has so much more than what most settle for.
Sometimes I scare myself with all of the "crazy" things I am doing, and the "crazy" things I believe. Because if God isn't real, you should lock me up in a mental asylum, seriously. The choices I make are not what one would consider logical. I make my decisions based off of a still, small whisper in my heart. And no matter how crazy the whisper is, I have absolute faith that it will happen. Because that whisper is God.
And when I read the Bible I am greatly comforted. I think of Noah who built an ark in the middle of dry land because God told him to. Or Abraham who left his home and everything he knew to follow God's voice into the wilderness so that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Or Moses, a murderer who believed that he could take on Pharaoh and release the Israelites. He succeeded by the way, and by his incredible faith he split the Red Sea. Or David, a young man who believed he could take on a literal giant that no one else, not even the king would face. Or the disciples who believed that Jesus was the son of God. The list goes on. Just read the Bible and you will hear story after story who did things that seemed completely irrational.
Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, were protected from lions, fires and sword thrusts. They walked out of prison, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. They raised men from the dead, healed the the blind and deaf. They ruled nations, split the red sea and commanded out demons. And that is just the beginning.
No, none of these men made rational decisions. They were constantly told they were crazy, and if it hadn't been for God they would have been. But because they believed and had faith they changed the course of history. Millions have been saved because of their stories.
The great and grand things that God calls us to do are never rational. If they were, they wouldn't be great, rather, they would be ordinary.
But here is the thing, I don't want to be rational if it means living an ordinary life. I want to have adventures, I want to serve the widows and the orphans, I want to love with all my heart and I want to change the world.
The stories that move us, that inspire us are always the stories of achieving the impossible. They are stories of the underdog that wins, or the lonely finding love, or good (even when vastly outnumbered) triumphing over evil. Think of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, Braveheart... the list goes on.
And the only way that I know to live a beautiful story is by listening to this extraordinary voice in my heart I know to be God.
I am crazy enough to believe that through the love of God I can change the world.
Thank God I am crazy.
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 3/7/2012
Nothing got me more excited as a child than a day at the zoo. I LOVED it, I loved seeing all the beautiful creatures that God created in one place. I loved seeing the majesty of the big cats (so much that I wanted to be a cheetah when I grew up), I loved seeing the elephants and the giraffes. There was something exotic and adventurous about it.
Now that I am older it kind of depresses me, it doesn't seem adventurous anymore, quite the opposite. I see these magnificent creatures stuck in cages and it breaks my heart. Sure they have food brought to them, they live longer and they have the African Savannah painted on their walls. And their life is easy, but it just feels wrong.
There is no comparison between a painting of the African Savannah and the real thing. Like when you take a picture of a beautiful sunset and what appears on the screen doesn't even come close to describing it. I'm sure the lions aren't fooled, there is something wild in them that craves the Safari. They were made to fight for a meal and challenge other prides and fight for survival.
Lions were meant to rule the Savannah and I bet even the ones in the Zoo know that they were made for something more.
And in that way I think we are a whole lot like lions. I think a lot of us are living life knowing that we were meant for more. That somehow our lives MEAN something.
And I am here to tell you that YOU, reading this, absolutely have purpose.
God doesn't make mistakes and we all have callings on our lives. Some of us were meant to stop wars, some of us were made to teach, while others learn, some of us were made to lead and others to be loyal followers...but ALL of us were made to love. And I think deep down, each one of us knows what we were made for. But unlike the lions, we build our own cages.
We trap ourselves in the fear of failure or rejection, we don't take risks because we don't want to get hurt. But that to me seems like the biggest heartbreak of all.
Somewhere along the way in the way of protecting our heart, we lose sight of our purpose. We think that our purpose is to make money, reproduce and die. But that just seems so meaningless to me.
I see people everyday and it is like that light that once made them believe that anything was possible has been snuffed out. They got scared and started padding their hearts with sex, money and food. Anything but deal with the truth that they are broken.
It's like Hugo said, "Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do... Maybe it's the same with people. If you lose your purpose... it's like you're broken."
But the glorious thing about humanity, is that we are never beyond repair. Even if we have been ignoring our purpose for years and years we can always find it again.
Because that is the way that we are MADE. Even if we deny who we are at our core and act like something else. It doesn't change who we are.
Because we were made for a purpose. There is an irrevocable call upon everyone of us, and no matter how you try to snuff it, it will keep calling.
Love more. Dream Bigger. Change the World.
And it is gonna be hard. And it is going to push us to ends of ourselves and we are going to mess up. But we're not alone in this. The Creator is on our side, and He will never give up on us.
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 2/26/2012
God is a dreamer. Think of Genesis, He was there before it all, probably just dreaming. He brought those dreams to fruition. I wonder how long he thought of the way the sun would feel on the skin, or the sound of the ocean, or the smell of rain. Or even the way he created us, with a soul that was created in the image of God Himself. A soul, a spirit capable of incredible love and sacrifice and endurance.
And I think God's biggest dream is to see His people fall in love with Him and by so doing fall in love with people around them. To see them get involved in something bigger than themselves, to bring Heaven down to Earth.
Yes, I think God is a dreamer, it's hard not to see it when you look around and think about the miracles all around. The concept of sight still blows my mind, how can a ball of flesh see things and how can a bigger ball of flesh intepret it?
Truly, I think there are whispers of God's dreams all around us. But at the same time we have found a way to screw it up, with hatred and jealousy and selfishness. There are some truly heart-wrenching things out there, child sex trafficking, starvation, murder... the list goes on.
And while most of us here in America have never encountered such things, we know that this is not how it is supposed to be.
I think how we screw up the dream in America is chasing after wealth and material things. Our media screams of satisfying the here and now.
Instant gratification, sleep with whoever you want, who cares if you break their heart? Buy that fancy car now, who cares if you don't have the money for it? Buy the cheapest product, who cares if it was a result of slave labor?
Our culture is all about the self. And I think Switchfoot said it best, We were meant to live for so much more.
I think deep down we all know that this life was meant to be enjoyed, cherished, and most of all full of love.
I also think that no matter how much we screw it up, God is a relentless dreamer. He is going to see those dreams come true. And in the most incredible way... through us. Yes, through us broken and selfish people God is going to chase down His dreams.
He is going to see love take over the planet, through us. Through you and me in relationship with Him and this gets me excited. VERY EXCITED!
We are His grand plan. I believe that He is constantly scheming about how to make our lives and the lives of those around us, more whole. More full of love, and of life, and of laughter.
I can just imagine Him with the biggest grin on His face, just dreaming about the ways he knock our socks off. Ways that he can make us laugh and cry and love.
That isn't to say that He wants our lives to be easy, no, quite the opposite. I think He wants our lives to be growing and stretching through being difficult. I think that He will call us to do things that terrify us.
But difficult does not mean bad. No, I think through the difficult times our lives become more full and somehow through the difficult times we become better people. And I think through facing our fears we become more capable of love.
I think He whispers dreams into our hearts, giddy for us to get the courage to step out in FAITH and follow those wonderful whispers, no matter how much they scare us (in a good way.)
So I leave you with a quote by Mary Oliver,
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 2/21/2012
A promotional video my friend Zac made for me.
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 2/9/2012
Funny how God works. Usually, God will tell us to do something way ahead of time. We are anxious to meet His call but are often times confronted with many obstacles along the way. Take The World Race for example, myself along with many of my teammates are presented with challenges that seem impossible. Many of us are a hard time believing the funds will come in, some of us are running around looking for jobs and some of us are going through really difficult relationships. All of these weigh upon us and we beging to think that this race may never happen.
It reminds me the story of Joseph in the Bible. You see Joseph was one of many sons and intensely envied by his brothers. His father often showed favoritism toward him, in one particular instance he was presented with a beautiful coat. One night Joseph had a dream from God that his brothers would bow down to him and that he would be shown great favor. Joseph, in his excitement, made the mistake of telling his brothers. So his brothers promptly threw him in a well, ripped up his coat and covered in blood and told his father that Jacob was killed by a wild animal.
I wonder what Joseph was thinking in that moment... God told him that he would be shown favor and that his brothers would bow down to him. And now he was sitting at the bottom of the well waiting to die. I bet he was thinking what in the well? God, you lied to me. There is no way I will ever be shown favor.
But God had a plan, even though it didn't seem like it. And eventually, through trials and tribulation, Joseph was put as Phaoroh's right hand man, in charge of much of Egypt. He was shown incredible favor and his brothers did eventually bow down to him. Despite everything, even when it seemed like favor was impossible, God was faithful to His word.
And I bet a lot of us racers are in a similar place. We might be sitting around thinking... What in the well? How is this race ever going to happen?
May I remind you that God is faithful... ALWAYS. He can't be anything else.
So be encouraged, we have the God of the Universe on our side.
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Posted in holiness by Meghan Tschanz on 2/7/2012
I was recently blessed with the opportunity to visit my best friend in Israel. I tried to not have expectations for the trip, for I have travelled enough to know that new experiences are never what you expect. However, there are some expectations you cannot disable.
I expected Israel to be a desert (probably because all the Jesus movies I have seen took place in a desert) and I expected it to be a holy place (what does that even mean?). Needless to say Israel was not what I expected.
The land is lush and beautiful, it really is the land flowing with milk and honey, the promised land. Miles and miles of beautiful coast line with green flowered hills, it reminded me a lot of California. But it was not the landscape that surprised me the most. It was the holiness I tried to put in the land.
One of the days were spent in Jerusalem, where we planned to visit all of the Christian Holy Places. I was filled with excitement for the day, I thought there would be a magical and holy presence to the land. When we finally arrived at Old City Jerusalem we were greeted with hundreds and hundreds of vendors, selling absolutely everything and were approached by tour guides offering their services.
The first thought I had was of the story in Mark 11 where Jesus overturns the tables of the men who had turned His "house of prayer" into a "den of robbers." I wasn't so sure that God was being glorified in this place, it seemed that temporary pleasures were glorified. Still, I wanted to have a holy experience on the streets where Jesus walked. I had heard stories of friends who said that they were changed forever by their trip to Jerusalem. So I tried to make it holy as vendors proposed to me (yes, marriage), offered me their goods, and told me they "had the biggest one" (I don't want to know what they were referring to.) We tried to navigate our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the church the built around where Jesus was thought to have been crucified) and I was anxious for some quiet and a place to focus on God.
The Church was not what I was expected, it had an air of fanaticism and desperation. People were kissing the ground and buying candles and yelling out to God. It wasn't a place of rest. If this was a place where God dwelled the people didn't know how to reach Him. And I was almost tempted to join in, to try and get God to show up in this place. As I tried to get something holy out of the experience God clearly said to me "Holiness is a place in your heart, not a place on this Earth."
Yes, Jesus walked these streets, but he has also walks the streets in our own towns. The Bible says that Jesus lives inside of us, so we have the ability to bring Jesus anywhere. We don't have to go to Jerusalem to experience a deeper place of holiness, we just have to get our hearts right.
And after that I stopped trying to make the experience something that it wasn't. Sure, God was in that place, but He was no more in that place than He is everywhere else on Earth. It is the condition of my heart that matters, and if my heart is holy then anywhere I am is holy, be that a beautiful mountain or a shabby garage. What a simple, yet profound revelation.
May we all remember that, going to church doesn't make you anymore holy nor does feeding the homeless. Those places don't become holy until your heart is in it. It is ALL about the condition of your heart.
This year I will live holiness out from my heart. I hope you will join me.
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Posted in General Posts by Meghan Tschanz on 1/1/2012
I begin my New Year with a zillion thoughts racing through my head. Mainly about what this coming year will bring and whether or not I have made the right decision. To those of you who do not know I have officially decided to spend the next year doing the World Race. A decision that has been a long time in the making, filled with trepidation and a desire to please those around me conflicting with a desire in me to live a life of adventure while loving those around me.
It has now been a week since I have officially decided and from those I have told I have received a wide array of reaction, from excitement, to jealousy, to hesitancy. I have been challenged by the boldest of them as to why I had decided this (which I am thankful for.) Was it just me merely wanting to travel the world or did I believe that this is what God truly had for me. And the answer to both of those is yes.
Of course I want to see the world, it would be really stupid of me to sign up for such a thing if I didn’t have this desire raging inside of me. I also want to deepen my relationship with God and change the world for the better even in my own small way. And it made me think, was it wrong of me to do something I wanted? Where did my desires end and God’s begin?
This I know, that above all else, my deepest desire is to fully live for God.
Yes sitting in a corporate office for the rest of my life sounds like a slow and painful form of poison. But surely God knows that if he called me to sit a in a corporate office for the rest of my life I would do it. Not only because I love Him, but because that I know He knows best.
But I also know something else about God that so many people seem to be forgetting. That he loves us....
And I know that must seem like the most obvious statement that absolutely every Christian must know. But I still think a lot of us are missing the concept.
He loves us.
Think about it when God chooses one word to describe himself in the Bible, He doesn’t use the word powerful, just or merciful. No, He says, God IS love. Yes God is also powerful, just and merciful but those to me all seems like aspects of love to me.
And you are probably thinking that you already know all of this, and I hope you do. But maybe it is time that you need a reminder.
He loves us like a father loves us. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11)
So I also know this about God. That while we have some evil desires in our heart, there are also good and beautiful ones. That He put there when He created us, that He wove into us when we accepted Him into our hearts.
You guys HE put those there. Your calling is wrapped around those deep desires, whether it be to be a mother, or a business man, or a missionary in the Congo. I believe like a good father that He wants to give them to you.
I also believe that in order for these desires to happen in a way that is good and pleasing to God, we need to surrender them to him. And that in His timing He will give them back to you, but not in the way that you had expected.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that God is a genie, here to give us whatever we want. There are some things that we surrender to God and we never get back. But even that is for the best, even if we don’t fully understand it.
BUT when did we begin to believe that the desires of our hearts were bad?
They can’t be if He put them there.
And I believe after years of waiting on God is finally giving me the green light, to go see the world, to build deep relationships and point people to a love greater than anything they could ever know.
It is my job to step out in faith and accept the gift and the adventure that He is offering.
So I conclude with this, yes I want to see the world. But I believe that HE put that desire inside me and that is His perfect timing He is bringing this dream to fruition.
He is a good father.
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