When I decided to go on the World Race I went into it with the mentality of, ‘I want to do something bigger than myself’. I didn’t want to let myself get sucked into the selfish mindset of the well off Americans. Don’t get me wrong, I am not selfless by any means. I simply wanted to be apart of things in our big world that didn’t revolve around my happiness.
This month our ministries varied every day. Some liked it because they got to serve in a variety of ways. While others would have preferred to have one focus all month so they could really invest themselves in one thing. I was in the middle, I saw the benefits and downfalls of both.
Ironically, the way we served on our last two days in the Dominican Republic are the days that grabbed my heart most.
It was manual labor days, I was used to those by now. Wait for your direction for the day, grab your tool, and push through until it’s time for lunch or stopping for the day. It wasn’t until we were almost finished on our last day that I saw and understood the magnitude of what we just completed that afternoon.
We worked together as a team, carving dirt steps down the side of a mountain that will lead to where an orphanage will eventually be built.
As hot as the sun was beating down on my back all afternoon, how much the sweat stung when it got in my eyes, how much I had to force myself to drink my then hot water from my water bottle so I wouldn’t pass out, how much my blisters throbbed on my hands, and how terrible I could feel my farmers tan becoming. I was literally filled with so much joy and excitement for what we were doing!
I may never see those stairs covered in concrete or the actual orphanage finished, but I will always know one thing. Some day, when precious little orphans are running and laughing and playing on those stairs that lead to the first place they may ever feel, safe, loved, and wanted. I will have played an important roll in literally carving out the foundation of what was needed to make that happen.
As frustrated as I was pick-axing, shoveling, and carrying rocks all afternoon. I was beginning to slip into my selfish desire to complain about how mundane the work was or how much my back hurt, but God pulled me back to my very own desire for this trip.
‘Jaide, recognize that this is so much bigger than you and your blisters. This is for My Kingdom’
There are so many things in our lives, every day where we need that reality check. First, we need to put ourselves into places where expanding Christ’s Kingdom and loving His people is the priority. That might look like raising your children with Christ as their sole foundation, getting involved and dedicated to a bible study, serving as a Sunday school leader, youth leader or worship leader at church, reading your bible every day, inviting the same person to church over and over again, or whatever it may be in your life. If we have our Savior Jesus Christ as our focus, we cannot grow weary of perusing Him and His Kingdom. We need to keep it in perspective, and sometimes that means stepping back from the one small step we have been chiseling at for what feels like forever and see the whole picture that Christ is using us to help create.
Choose to do something bigger than yourself!
