Re. It’s just two little letters, yet when put in front of a word it changes the meaning entirely. For example, it can either mean to go back as in recall, or it can mean new or again as in rebuild. Little did I know that R-E was the world race summed up. The whole race is based around these to two letters, r and e.
Case in point:
The world race starting with training camp asks you to reexamine your life. To look back on who you were and who you want to be. To examine the stories that make up your life and ask yourself how God was moving through each and every one of them though you may not have seen it at the time. You spend the majority of your time on the field reexamining who were once were and who you are now. You reexamine your day in ministry and you reexamine you daily interactions with your teammates during feedback.
The world race helps you to realize how redeemed you truly are. You probably knew that you were redeemed the day Jesus hung on the cross, but you ,or at least I have, come to understand the depth and weight of that sacrifice here on the race. I realize now that because I was redeemed on that day I don’t have to keep striving for it daily.
There are times on the race when you become refreshed. Now I am not just talking about the 4 month period when that was the team I was on. I am talking about the times on debrief, rest days, after a good sermon, or some good quiet time when the Lord refreshes you mind, body, and soul. When you don’t feel like pouring out anymore the Lord pours into so much that the only thing you can do is to continue to pour out.
The Lord restores you. He energizes you giving you new strength to continue on. He also returns you into the person he had planned for you to be. The funny thing is that you didn’t realize that you were straying from the person he had planned for you to be until you came on the race. At home you did not realize that you had listened to the lies of the world telling you to be someone else. Restoration is a painful process and occasionally long, but worth it in the end because you are walking in your true self.
On the world race you become redefined. After months and months of being broken and thinking that this is the worst decision you have ever made the Lord provides you with breakthrough and revelation. After months of different ministry and seeing the world the Lord places a whispering in your heart. A whispering that soon becomes a calling. You then realize that all the brokenness and hardship He walked you through has defined your life and redefined who you want to be. People back home probably won’t recognize the person you are now.
The next R-E word I am learning to embrace is reentry. While the Lord may teach me another word beginning with re between now and my reentry, this is the word that is currently on my mind. To return home is on everyone’s minds now since we are so close. Reentry means a lot of things. It’s the next big adventure after these past 11 months. Can I keep all the things I have learned on the race? Will I be able to live and continue to walk in this new me? Do I believe that the Lord will continue to show me my next steps once home? These are the questions that race through my mind daily. And though I am itching to go home I know that reentry is not going to be as easy as I hope it to be.
When I arrive home I plan on being able to rewind, replay all the photos, videos, and stories I have. I hope to revamp my room, relax for awhile, and readjust to life back home. So I guess it looks like I have a lot of R-E back home too.
