Dear Future Joey,
Well, my good friend, you are probably reading this from [God knows where] and dealing with {Lord knows what}, but there were a few things I wanted to say to you. First off, go ahead and have a nice chuckle at how naive and unaware I am, it is ok, I won’t be offended. I would tell you about the comfortable couch I am currently writing from, or the Dr. Pepper next to me, but it would probably just make you sad.
Anyway, I just wanted to write to remind you of a few things. First, as much as my first sentence was tongue-in-cheek. Read it again. God knows. And that is good enough. I don’t know what the last few months have been like for you. I don’t know how you are feeling or what you have been through. But God knows. He knows as you are reading this AS He knows when I write it. Trust, and rest, in His complete knowledge.
I don’t want you to forget what it was like here. Before launch. The experience of a lifetime slowly manifesting itself. Excitement. Nervousness. Remember what you thought it would be. Thank God that it is something else. Remember why you signed up for this insanity. Remember the people who so readily partnered with you in this journey. You are not alone. You are loved and prayed for. They are waiting for your stories. Trusting that their investment has yielded fruitful returns. Remember how much you love your squadmates. Remember the Christ I see in each of them.
You are probably pretty worn down, but The World Race is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Press in to it. Fight the good fight. Continue to serve when you are tired. Love when you are annoyed. Give when you feel empty. Be encouraged. There are awesome things ahead of you, just like there (are/were) awesome things ahead for me. Think of the people you know that I don’t. Picture their faces, their voices. Hear their prayers, reminisce worship with them. You are so lucky to know them, I cannot wait until I do!
Finally, take a minute to worship! I know you are prone to read this, smirk, make plans to worship later, get distracted, etc. But, seriously, DO IT! NOW!! You are created to worship. You are on the World Race to worship. Whatever else is going on, your salvation is there. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Worship Him. When you are done, go grab a teammate and worship, then the two of you grab the whole team, then take the team to your contact, then to a local, then to the community, then to a spaceship and…ok, I’ll stop there. But you get the idea. Worship spreads like wildfire. Light a match.
Shout at me if you can. I would love to hear what God has done, is doing. You are cared for, and you are blessed. This is not some stranger, this is someone who knows you fairly well, saying: you are called to this. You can do this. You ARE doing this. Do not waste a minute of it.
Much Love,
Pre-Launch Joey
