Today my team and our UK friends are celebrating Christmas early. We’re peeling potatoes, listening to worship music, and laughing around the countertop. I’m saving these moments in my head for when I’m missing them back in America next week.
Although I am incredibly excited to be back in Wisconsin, adjusting to life after the Race will be a whole new challenge. I’m grateful to have my people around to love me through it.
One of the questions I’ve been asked this close to the finish line of my Race is what I am doing when I get home. Something that the Lord has been teaching me from the time I applied to the World Race is that God isn’t in a hurry. My timeline is very, very different from His, and His is better. As I was praying about whether or not to apply to full-time jobs immediately after the Race, I felt like the Lord was calling me into a quieter season of wait. I trust that He’s preparing just the right position (or classroom) for me, and, in a very un-American way, I’m going to wait for it.
I also feel like the Lord is asking me to reflect upon my Race in this next season, but not let it be the highlight of my life. I’m 24 and have years to follow the Lord into wild new adventures. They may look like more travel/missions, going into women’s or youth ministry, counseling, or managing a classroom of 12 year olds. Or maybe getting married and having kids. But whatever the Lord leads me to next, I am going to do it in full joy and obedience to Him- because everything is a wild adventure with Him.
When people ask what I’m doing after the Race, the best response I have is going back to substitute teaching, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, going to a World Race reunion in January, visiting family in Alabama, snuggling my dogs, and eating queso. It’s going to be great.
The “I’m So Excited For” List
-My dogs
-Family and friends
-El Azteca Queso
-My car- freedom!
-Hazelnut coffee
-My closet
-The library/my library
-A gym
-Snow/more than one season
-My own room
-Olive Garden breadsticks
-Candles
-Pizza
-My hooded denim American Eagle jacket
-Hairdryer
-Feeling rooted
