New Territories, Old Challenges:
tired of it yet?
Well, it’s nearly the end of the eighth month of this crazy adventure. I distinctly remember being back in Costa Rica looking at my team after two weeks had gone by, saying, “Guys, I can’t believe this! I can’t believe we’re already two weeks into the Race and that there’s only one more week in Costa Rica. Imagine what it’ll be like when we get to month eight.” There was a communal, “pfft” and a widening of all the eyes because no one could even imagine what that would look like. Month eight was on the other side of reality and only time would be able to tell us what it would feel like to be there.
Well, here we are.
When you’re at the beginning of a thing, I feel like that’s when the dream is most alive. The freshness and newness of your next goal rouses you into launching even though you don’t know where exactly you’ll land. I suppose I did have some things in mind when I tried to piece together an inkling of what my future might look like: greater understanding, greater peace, harder work, bigger problems, larger victories over said problems; yet, there are thoughts that linger from my past: people and events from the past that I just can’t shake that I hoped would have been resolved by this time.
That being said, when I read chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians it brings me to wonder what Paul was talking about when he begged the Lord to take that thorn out of his side. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9. What could Paul have been struggling with that was greater than his persecution?
Some of the things that often grow us the most drastically are often the things we tend to shy away from the most assuredly. We might take the energy that could be devoted to working the problem out with God and turn it against ourselves saying, “Why would God allow this to happen to me!?” I have times when I wonder, “Why the heck am I still dealing with (insert some kind of problem here)?” That’s simply the humanity in me: desiring an instant fix.
Life is clearly not without struggle and nowhere in the Bible does it declare that it will be an easy ride; in fact, it warns us of quite the opposite because we live in a fallen world. What God does say is that he’ll be with us through anything, that he’s always available to those who seek him out and that he cares about everything that we face in this life.
So at the end of the day in month eight, I may still have my struggles, and maybe they’re not clearing up quite as quickly as I might have liked; however, I would take difficult growth with God over stagnant complacency without him any day.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
