Today is the last day of the World Race. Tomorrow I get on a plane to fly home for the first time in nearly a year.
As I wrote this blog, I was on a bus from Cusco to Lima for our Final Debrief. I am no longer able to avoid the reality that this season of my life is coming to an end.
But when summer ends, fall begins. After winter comes spring. As this season comes to a close, a new one is just beginning.
I don’t know yet what the next season will look like. And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little afraid. As much as I’ve experienced change over the last year, I like to think I’ve grown in being adaptable. Still, the unknowns linger in the back of my mind, tempting me to fear and inviting me to despair.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe I will need to grieve this season. This year has been a beautiful gift from the Lord, and as it concludes, I want to allow myself to mourn the loss of this special time in my life.
But we do not mourn as those who have no hope.
As I grieve the ending of this season, I also rejoice in hope for the life that God still has for me to live.
I refuse to believe that with the end of the Race, the best year of my life is over. I refuse to give in to the thought that this is the best I will experience.
If you read my very first post on this blog, you will know that part of my desire to go on the Race was receiving a word from the Lord. He told me, “You’re limiting me if you think this is the best I can do for you.”
I took him at his word then, and I still believe that word is true.
Yes, the Race has been incredible and challenging and beautiful. But I refuse to believe that this is the best God can do for me. I choose to trust that this has only been a glimpse into the beautiful life he has prepared for me still to come.
I have no doubts that, like the Race, that life will have it’s share of challenges and difficulties, but if I have learned anything in those moments this year, it is that God is faithful.
I trust that this year has only been preparation for the life of trust and faithfulness and boldness and discovery that God has destined for me.
As incredible as this year has been, as many risks as we’ve taken to step into what God was asking of us, as much as I’ve learned, I’ve kind of been in a bubble. Yes, I’ve seen eleven countries on three different continents. But I’ve been living this life with a group of people committed to the same goal and the same path for getting there. I have also had the benefit of hosts and leaders who are focused on facilitating growth.
When I go home, I will still have people supporting me and loving me and praying for me. But there’s no guarantee that we’re all going the same direction or that we’re all committed to achieving the same goal in the same way.
I will be stepping off the Race and into a world where not everyone is committed to giving feedback, to challenging me when they see me living in less than the best God intended, to listening to God’s direction rather than societal definitions of success.
On August 21, that bubble will burst, and I will go back into the world. But I carry those lessons with me. I bring with me the truth that God is able to do more with us than what society could dream when we trust him. And I possess the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, the same Spirit that is able to resurrect dead dreams.
I am a woman who has been equipped, especially over the last eleven months, to bring the Kingdom of God to a world that desperately needs it.
So I’m saying goodbye to the World Race, but I’m saying hello to the world.
