Going around the world as a missionary can give you this false idea that the people you are going to need you or even that God needs you. Even since I was first preparing to go on the World Race I got encouragement and praise from all sorts of people! They told me how amazing it was that I was going to give up a year of my life to help others, that I was going to lose my comforts, that I was such a good person for saying yes. I appreciated it and it really did help me to make the decision to actually go, but it also began to highlight a problem I had already been seeing. The World Race was becoming this big, glorified thing that would make all the difference in my life and all the lives that I touched. While I do agree that there have been some amazing things that happened this year, I know for a fact that it has nothing to do with the World Race and everything to do with God.
Don’t go on the race because you want to be a nice person and do nice things; go on the race because you understand what this world really needs and are flat on your face crying out for the salvation of those who don’t know Jesus. Don’t go on the race because you think that you are going to save people because you can’t do that; you can’t change the circumstances people are in and more often than not you are just there seeing it all. Don’t go on the race because you feel for the world and the people that are hurting in it; your feelings don’t change the face of eternity. Go because you heard the Lord clearly call you and because you are submitting to Him and His plan for your life in obedience so that He can work through you.
The race isn’t going to give you purpose in your life, give you that “thing” you have always been searching for, it isn’t going to make you into a better person, and it definitely isn’t going to help you escape from your problems at home. Take it from someone who is finishing out month 8 of one heck of a journey! There’s many times you have nothing to do and are limited by the ministry, the country and what is allowed, or even your teammates and sit at home frustrated. There’s even more times where you are completely helpless and can’t actually make a difference and just stand by watching the hardest things you have ever seen; a man dying of AIDS, an earthquake, or a young girl being sold on the street. You end up feeling more purposeless, more helpless, and a whole lot of ugliness gets brought out of you as you are immersed in stressful things and crazy intense community. The race isn’t the answer; God is. Don’t put your hope in a trip, but in the only One who deserves your trust.
Before the World Race I would have all of these ideas of how I would serve the poorest of the poor just like Jesus did in the Bible or how I would see God move in such huge ways that I had never seen before. I would daydream as I went through my normal, American schedule and had this idea that when the World Race would start I would truly begin to live like a Christian really should. Scrolling blogs, watching videos, and talking to alumni only heightened my longing; it seemed so different, so real, and so unlike the life I was currently in. I missed the point though; the difference wasn’t the World Race, but rather was what I was choosing each and every moment of every day. Isn’t the point of your life to love? To first love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and then to love others as you love yourself?
Then let me ask you this: since when do we need to schedule love?
That’s disgusting; have we become so cold, so lazy, so uncaring that we aren’t able to pour out the love that God gives us so abundantly in every moment of our lives no matter where we are? It is supposed to permeate everything we say, think, and do and is the main thing that is supposed to set apart Christians and our God from all the other world religions. If it’s the Spirit’s everlasting spring that overflows from us, and if it is the Father’s breath in our lungs, and Jesus’ blood that cleanses us, how is it that we are choosing to look like the dark, fallen world around us?
We can do nice things, we can work harder, we can say stuff that sounds great, but that isn’t the solution. We can fly across the world and serve in the most rural and poor villages and nurse the dying back to health with our bare hands. We can stand on a big stage in front of thousands of people and preach in a way that causes emotions to spring from peoples hearts. We can sweat over a fire making the biggest pots of rice and beans imaginable to feed the hungry little children that watch with big eyes and smile for the first time in a long time. We can give up every single thing we have ever owned and give away every cent of our money to people who need it more.
If it doesn’t have love as the motivation then it is all worthless.
God doesn’t need us to be a hero. He doesn’t need us to save people, He doesn’t need us fix all the problems we see, to be this shining example so that people will love Him. Jesus and the Gospel that was written through His death on the cross is the only thing that can save people and God doesn’t need a pitiful human to make others want to love Him. He needs us to just give it all to Him- including every part of ourselves- and trust Him to do all those things through us. He could do all of it without an ounce of our help because He is GOD, but He loves us enough to use us and let us experience these beautiful, eternal things here on earth.
If it doesn’t have the Gospel as the goal then it all will be burned away just like everything else.
Fine, do whatever you want, but know that those things that you are so desperately trying to grasp onto, trying to build up, and pouring out all your energy for are worthless. This life is so short and you are so tiny even in the big picture of the world this very minute, let alone adding the concept of time into there. You can’t take anything with you to eternity and your only purpose here on Earth is to glorify God and to bring His people to Him- so why are you creating all of these other goals, these other distractions? I don’t know about you, but when I finally get to meet the God of the universe I want to say that I didn’t pretend to be ignorant of what He has called us to as His children and instead fulfilled my own desires. I want to be filled with the awe, joy, terror, and love that comes from meeting the King, the Father, the Creator you have been serving with every minute of your life.
Okay, I get it: we are all humans and we are fallen, broken, and sinful and can never obtain perfection and that’s fine because that’s the way it is. But don’t use that as an excuse; as a reason why you shouldn’t give everything you have, why you shouldn’t do hard things when you don’t necessarily have to, as a loophole to save you from pain or putting yourself out there. If you aren’t challenged enough in your walk, then you aren’t choosing to follow God to the places He wants to take you and if it is too difficult to keep going, then you aren’t trusting in God to actually allow Him to empower you. Use your brokenness and humanness to motivate you to pursue God even more fervently; if you truly are His child and after the Father’s heart you will desire to flee from the sin and be free from darkness as much as He desires it.
We try and complicate living a Christian life to all of these formulas and fruits and disciplines and those things are all good and Biblical and a part of it, but don’t make it too hard. It really all boils down to taking a good, hard look at Jesus, then yourself, and then figuring out why those two things don’t look the same and doing something about it. God has got it, we can trust Him! He teaches us, empowers us, corrects us, stabilizes us, directs us, loves us, comforts us- the list goes on and on! You are doing none of it yourself, so stop worrying about all the little things and just submit yourself over to Christ and trust.
Do I do this perfectly? Heck no! Will you ever do this perfectly? Absolutely not! The Bible states that fact over and over; it warns us that we will fail again and again, that we will never look like a carbon copy of Jesus because we aren’t also a deity, and that the perfection we are striving for is only attainable after this life. Stop acting surprised when you fall, when you aren’t perfect, and let go of the fear of failure that is binding you from doing anything useful and just let God do His job with you. The Bible also promised infinite grace for all those times we screw up and an unconditional love that means we can do nothing to lose or earn God’s affections.
If I could give anyone even considering the World Race a sentence of advice it would be this: it’s not about you, it’s not about the World Race, and it’s not about people- it’s all about God.
