“The World Race is an 11-month mission trip that takes you to 11 different countries…” When you first hear of the World Race, it sounds like a pretty long amount of time to be away from home. Almost an entire year will be spent traveling the world and proclaiming the Gospel, making disciples of all the nations. But once you get out on the field, you begin to feel the exact opposite. I really struggled in Albania, feeling like the amount of time I had was inadequate. There was such a great need and so little time, and I am only one person. How can I have an impact when I have only one month, and I am but only one person?
As if this wasn’t a hard enough lesson to learn in a short month, we found out that we had the opportunity to serve in Greece during our second month on the Race. For ONE week. It felt like time was getting shorter and shorter, and the pressure was on. How much more urgency there was because we had so little time to reach these people who were so lost.
During my time in Albania, I read through the first few chapters of the book of Romans. My last Sunday before I left, the Lord really touched my heart through my reading for the day. It was in Romans 5, and my subheading read: Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ.
“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18-19, NIV)
Adam was ONE man. He made ONE mistake, and it affected millions of people for thousands of years. But Jesus was ONE man. He made ONE sacrifice and it has affected and will continue to affect millions and millions of people for thousands and thousands of years to come. Sometimes we as individuals seem so small in our own version of God’s story that we feel insignificant or incapable. These two men are the best example of the effect that just one person can have. Extreme cases, I know, but the point is still valid. The Bible is FULL of stories of powerful people who have done incredible things just because they said yes to the Lord.
God didn’t look at David and say, “You are but one little boy. You cannot destroy this giant.” He didn’t call Moses to the edge of the Red Sea and say, “It is impossible to cross, for you are just one man.” No. Instead, God said, “BECAUSE you are one man, or one boy, or one girl, and I am working in you and through you and for you, you can do all of this AND MORE.”
There is so much hurt in our world. There is so much poverty, and hunger, and darkness that have yet to be reached. And no matter how long we spend on the Race, how far into the darkness we travel, there will always be ONE MORE hungry little child, or ONE MORE sweet lady longing to know her Savior, or ONE MORE homeless man on the street. It’s hard to know that even though we are gone from our homes for so long, we will leave and they will still be there, lost and hungry and homeless.
I am one person. YOU are one person. And God is one great, big, all-knowing God. He has a great, big, perfect plan that includes every single one of us. For 53 people, discovering their role in the Kingdom looks like traveling to all of theses different continents, living out of a backpack and sleeping in tents in an effort to spread the love of Christ. What does that look like for you? I can tell you this—no matter how small of a part you think you play, God has specifically designed you to fit into that role and to play a key part in his story.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14, NIV)
