11/20/11
Dear T, U and V squads,
A year ago, I woke up in Kiev, Ukraine for my last travel
day on the World Race. One last day of travel with an absurd number of people…Kiev-Warsaw-NYC.
The last hour of our flight from Warsaw to New York was filled with 80+ loud
Americans who hadn’t been home in 11 months. We sang every American song we
could think of, and got yelled at the poor flight attendants many times. One
guy wouldn’t sit down because he was so excited, but finally as we started
descending he buckled in. It was a crazy, memorable PARTY that I will never
forget. The next few hours were bittersweet as we said good bye to our friends-now
family-we had traveled with, not knowing
when we would see each other again.
I’ve been thinking about that day a lot. I can’t believe it’s
been a year already and yet it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes when I
describe New Zealand or Africa, it seems like it was all a dream.
My friend Tiffany gets home today, from 11 months on the
World Race. I want to tell her, Your Journey Is Just Beginning. All of T, U and
V squads coming home today-it’s just starting. The next few months will rival,
if not supersede, your hardest months on the race. You’ll want to share
everything, or maybe nothing, and finding a few friends to process it all with
you is key. After a month or so at home, you’ll probably start itching to
travel again. It’s hard to stay in one place after a year of being a nomad.
There are a few things I wish I’d done differently. I had a
lot of plans coming home, but there were parts of the consumer American me that
a year in the world had not shaved off. By all means, enjoy the holiday season,
but take some time to ask God what next. If something falls into your lap, seek
the Lord on whether or not that is ACTUALLY what He has for you. Enjoy the
holidays but don’t let them become an excuse for not doing what the Lord has
called you to.
It could be a season of waiting or a season of doing. But
let it be a season of rest and refreshment. You just spent 11 months pouring
out all you had, having your insides wrecked and your understanding of God and
the world blown to smithereens and then rebuilt on a solid foundation of who
God is and His LOVE (not judgment, anger or rules) for you. Whether you feel it
or not, you do need rest.
So rest in the Lord. Take some time to seek Him and trust in
His timing. It may look like a week at home or a year. It may look like gainful
employment, volunteer work or joblessness.
For me, it was a job, then another job, then another job.
Somewhere in the middle I got so fed up with myself and the life I was living
compared to the life I lived on the world race and was no longer satisfied by
the “goodness” of the American dream. When an e-mail came from the WR Alumni
coordinators, I applied to lead an Ambassador trip. I was accepted to lead a
trip to Peru, and since then my life has been much more fulfilling. I’m currently
leading a Real Life trip in Guatemala, something I would not have said I would
be doing this time last year.
I don’t believe those months at home were wasted, though.
God let me hit a real rock bottom to realize that I need Him, even in America
where all my physical comforts are met. He let me walk away only to come
running home. I’d never had a season of being the prodigal until I got home
from the World Race. I needed to find God at home, in America. To know His
presence even in the comfort. To see His provision when I seemed to be lacking
nothing.
So thank you, Lord, for all the seasons. The seasons on the
race, the seasons at home, this season now. You’re sovereign and good, and it
all happens for a reason.
After all, Jesus is the reason for the season.
So T, U, and V squads, welcome home! It will be another
adventure, this life in America thing. Some of you probably won’t be home for
long, and that’s okay. For those of you who have no idea what’s next, God does.
And whatever happens, He’ll use it all.
Be honest with your experience-the good, the bad and the
ugly. Ask God to reveal to you what He’s done, what He’s taught you, how you’ve
changed. Let yourself be different-this will be the hardest. People expect you
to have changed but they all have their own ideas of what that looks like. Some
will expect you to be a “Better Christian”-to read your Bible more, pray more
and be sin-free. Some will expect you to be more humble, others more bold.
Your change is your change. Your Race was Your Race. God
changed you for your life, for your calling and your destiny. You may have traveled around the World with 40-50
other people, but what God did in your
life was TOTALLY unique and for His
divine purposes.
So be encouraged. Be loved. Be blessed. God’s still got you,
even in this foreign land of America.
Love you!
