Ever Present

But now, there is  a lull. Two and a half months where the experience suspends and we wait in the limbo of normal life until set ablaze again in January. It has been hard. I miss my squadmates. I am anxious to see what God has in store. I am steps away from a life-changing trip around the world and I desperately want to cross that threshold and begin the journey. In the meantime, I have been reading fellow racer blogs, getting details organized, buying last bits of supplies, praying, communicating with squadmates. Desperately trying to hold on to the experience of Training Camp and expectantly longing for the World Race experience to resume. 

There is a problem with all this. Life isn’t stopping to allow for it. There is work to do here at home (literally, I have a job). I have family and friends that I love and I do not want to be absent in these precious weeks with them.

The Presence of God does not recognize my “lull.” I was reminded of this when I came into our youth ministry gathering on the Wednesday night after Training Camp and, for the first few hours since leaving TC, thought about something other than the World Race. 

I need to be reminded that God is ever-present. That there is a King who is longing to make Himself known here and now. That my current season is not a waiting room. Whatever challenges, obstacles, and responsibilities mark my today, they are opportunities to know God and to be involved in the worship of His Kingdom. I don’t want to cheat myself, or those around me, of experiencing all that God has in store now, presently! Honestly, I haven’t been very good about this. And it is robbing me of precious moments with my Father.

I think my current situation speaks to a greater problem among Christians. We never live in the present. I wonder what percent of our time is spent either reliving the past or looking forward to the future. Probably a vast majority. We are always hanging on to some old glory or old misery. Always anticipating the next big thing. We seldom live in the present. But God is EVER present. Always here. Always now. Always relevant, prevalent, significant.

We also lose out because of our inability to escape the temptation to compare. This moment to the memory of that one. This situation to the one awaiting us, or at least what we hope it to be. I worry about being one of those Christians who confines God to a place or a situation. As if God only shows up at church camp or mission trips or Sunday mornings, because these are places we have seen Him before. This is one of the most difficult things in youth ministry – to convince a teen who experiences God on a trip, that the same God lingers in their home and school; that they do NOT have to wait around until that trip comes up next year to experience Christ. The World Race is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience. But I don’t want to lock God in there. I hope to take the worship and service I experience on the Race to know God better during my “normal” life. In the same way, I hope my worship and service at home informs my World Race experience. It is all different threads in an indescribable work of art, which is the accumulation of millions of moments, woven together by the Creator of the Universe. All threads are the same, because they are all stained with the fingerprints of Jesus, intertwined. Let us not allow an excitement over what God will do tomorrow rob us of what He is doing today.

Just to be clear, I do love the World Race. I am beyond excitement, with the joy of the Spirit, for all that it is. And communicating with squadmates, praying, preparing for the Race in all ways IS an awesome experience of worship that I do not plan to give up. I just do not want it all to come at the cost of what He is doing in my church, through my work, with my parents/teens/friends, etc.