So if you have been following my World Race journey at all you’ve probably seen a post of mine on Facebook, some of my daily photos, or maybe even watched one of my recap videos. While I always make an effort to give a window into what World Race life is actually like it’s still easy to look at all the things I’ve shared with everyone and only see the “shiny” stuff. Smiling children, mountaintop views, silly faces even when doing manual labor. Even in my pursuit of an honest portrayal I have still found myself showing the “best” moments.
I always post videos and say “here’s a little peek into our ministry this month in such and such country”, or something along those lines. But it really is a little peek. There is no way I could possibly show everything that we do or everything that we walk through. One because that doesn’t make for a very engaging recap video (it would be about 30hrs long) but also because that might be a little invasive into the lives of my teammates.
At no point in any of the recap videos I have cut together do you see all the team times where we cried together, the emotional breakdowns, the malaria, the lice, the bruises, the bickering, the discouragement, the anxiety, the tension. You as the observer get to see the resolution. You get the happy side of the story. And you get that story because that’s how we tell it. We talk about Gods faithfulness through the struggle because usually by that point we are on the other side and we can see His faithfulness in hindsight.
But He isn’t only faithful in hindsight. He’s faithful now. He’s good now. Before the breakthrough, while the trial is still in full swing, when it’s a struggle to get out of bed in the morning, He’s good there too. He isn’t only a good God when we are on the mountaintop. He is good in the valley. He is good when things are resolved and He is good if they are never resolved.
I walked into the Race with a whole pile of issues and insecurities. Being on the Race hasn’t always changed that. I am a person in process and all the things I fight and struggle with haven’t disappeared because I’m on the field. But the biggest lesson that I have learned is that even in the struggle God is good. Even when it hurts He is faithful. Even through the tears, even when nothing makes sense, even in that He is there.
His goodness and faithfulness doesn’t get put on the shelf when things are hard and we are hurting. The character of God doesn’t get put on pause until the trial is over. He is there. He is right there in the middle of it all.
So the next time you see a picture of a racer standing on top of a mountain with a cheesy smile, know that for every one of those pictures there are a thousand “unshiny” moments. But God was there in every single one of them.
