The World Race is, in every aspect, God's classroom. He has many different classes and schools and TWR is one of those schools. For 11 months I live in community not only with my six teammates but also the other 47 people on my squad. I spend more time every day with my six teammates then most married couples do together. Every single day there is a lesson to be learned and God is the teacher. I already know what kind of teacher He is by looking at what Jesus taught. The real issue is what kind of student I am. Am I the one that sits in the front of the class and eats up every bit of knowledge I can get my hands on? Am I the one that is asleep at the back of the classroom? I had to ask myself this question this morning. Truthfully I have always been the kind of student that did the bare minimum to get by. I even cheated sometimes because I slept through class. I never went out of my way to learn something difficult unless I had to or I really really enjoyed what I was doing.
TWR made me aware of that at training camp. Since then I have been transformed more and more into the student sitting in the front, consuming whatever I could. The hardest part about becoming this student is the realization that class does not end at 4:30 and there are no weekends or holidays. God's classroom is always in session and there is always something being taught, the question is am I paying attention.
Travel days are a time when my attention span, patience, and energy levels are on “E” with the little fuel light blinking. I am incapable of sleeping on buses, period, let alone when traveling on dirt “roads” that never see maintenance and make my spine scream when I look at them. I hate traffic at home, alone in my own vehicle, with air conditioning, and a good sound system. If I am honest it was something appealing about leaving America for 11 months.
In Kenya a few days ago we had 12 people packed into an 8 passenger van, actually normal for WR travel, but then add in our 40-50 pound bags as well as our day packs and the situation gets interesting. Add to that an African rainy season downpour and no air conditioning and all the ingredients are there for a meltdown. A funny thing happened though. The words “You need only be still” that a squad mate wrote on my hand were staring me in the face as I looked down. It was in this moment that I realized that the patience and strength I have been praying for were the titles of the lesson plan in Gods classroom today. This situation was an opportunity to practice patience.
A lot of times we pray for things that we have been given the capabilities of doing or learning ourselves. When we pray for patience I think that God gives us opportunities to learn and practice it. I think this is true of all aspects of His character. God could of course just make us more patient, wise, or strong, but for most of us, part of our refining process involves discipline, obedience and faith that all parts of a process, not just the end, are important.
A recent favorite quote of mine comes from Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia) discussing climbing Mt. Everest. He acknowledges that reaching the summit is only the end product of the whole process. Today you pay a large sum of money for other people to take care of the details along the way. The only thing you have to do is put one foot in front of the other. I don't think he is criticizing them for making it easier, he is criticizing them for bypassing the process as a whole. The journey to Nepal, purchasing gear, setting up camp, placing safety gear and ropes along the route, being immersed in Nepali culture, and of course actually putting one foot in front of the other, these are the real adventures, or refining aspects. The destination is not what changes you, it is the journey itself. He puts it this way:
“The whole point of climbing something like Everest is to effect some kind of spiritual or physical gain, but if you compromise the process, you're and asshole when you start out, and an asshole when you get back.”
I love that, and it could not be more true. If we do not pay attention to the details of our surroundings every day, we miss out on Gods teaching. Some times “you need only be still” to hear what he is saying to you.
Here is another quote from Jeff Johnson (climber, surfer, writer, all around dirtbag adventurer).
“The word adventure has just gotten overused. For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong. That's when the real adventure starts.”
Once again, Love it. And if we miss out on the process then we miss out on the real adventure that awaits us.
I am still in need of $241 to be fully funded. I am so close! Please if you can help me out financially click on the donate link to the left under my picture. Thank you so much to everyone that has supported me so far!
