This month marks one year that I committed to go on the World Race. As I write this blog, I am laying in my tent, underneath a mango tree, in Livingstone, Zambia, so far from my reality one year ago. I remember getting the call that I was accepted to go on the race like it was yesterday. I had just come back from an afternoon run and sunk down leaning against my bed, waiting to hear whether I had been accepted. I remember the rush of emotions when she said I would be going on the race in July. I remember calling my mom, my heart welling with a myriad of emotions. I remember going over to my best friends house and telling her the news as she prepared dinner over the stove and the sweet moment we shared, celebrating this exciting new chapter all the while realizing what it meant for our friendship. One year ago, I never could have imagined what an incredible year lay ahead of me. And while this year has truly been incredible, what I’ve learned through it all, is that it is our choice to make life incredible. The World Race doesn’t make life incredible. Living life for Jesus makes life incredible.
There are days on the race that are full of adventure. There are days that are full of once in a life experiences. But the World Race is also just day-to-day life. It can be monotonous. It can be exhausting. Sometimes, it is hard to see the purpose in what we are doing. I think I put the World Race on a pedestal for a long time; I thought, when I am on the race, I will find the joy I’ve been searching for. When I am on the race, I will use my gifts the way God intended. When I am on the race became my mantra. But this deferred hope, this deferred way of living out God’s plan for my life, doesn’t simply change because I am on the race. What God has been teaching me, over and over, is that each day is a choice. Each day I have to choose to surrender my plans and place them in His hands. Each day I have to choose joy. Each day I have to see the small moments as a grand opportunity to share God’s love and glorify His name. Each day we make that choice. And it doesn’t matter if I am in Zambia or the United States. We have a choice whether we speak words of encouragement to our friends and colleagues. We have a choice to see a small act of service as a pleasing gift to our Father. We have the choice to make each day special and memorable, one worth celebrating.
Don’t wait to choose joy. I did. I thought it would just happen. But it won’t happen simply because you wish it would; it takes action. And for me, that action, that action meant surrender. It’s seems counterintuitive, to choose to surrender, and it took me a long time to realize what surrendering really looks like. For me, it means waking up each morning and saying, Lord, I give this day to you and trust that you will work it together for good, and that in each moment, I will embody your joy. And some days, it takes praying that a few times over. But this act of surrendering has brought me back to the freedom and joy I’ve always longed for. So wherever you are, and whatever your days are filled with, choose to be a vessel for God each day. Don’t wait for something bigger to come along to embrace your identity as God’s child and live according to those truths. Choose today.
