I had the enormous privilege of being given a ticket to a San Francisco Giants game. It was a wonderful experience that I am so incredibly grateful for. The neat part was that even though it was a purely recreational experience, God still used it to speak to me and encourage me about the World Race!
At the very end of the game, after all the cheering (we won!), garlic fries (Bay Area specialty), sun burns, and fun, it was time to leave the stadium. There was a free Kutless concert on the field that I wanted to see the beginning of before I left to meet some friends; so I tried to make my way down to the field level from the top level where my seat was.
As I was walking down the ramp, I was overwhelmed by the number of people! I had no clue where I was going, but the only way down to the field level was to follow the crowd. Hundreds of people on this ramp, blindly following the ones in front of them, not really knowing what they are doing, or even paying attention to where they were going, just following the crowd.
When I got to the bottom, I realized I had made a mistake! You could not access the field from the bottom level after all. But the only way back up was through the masses of people still filing down the ramp like a bunch of zombies. Not to be deterred, I set off to forge my way back to where I needed to be.
The whole way back up to the second level, people were shocked to see me going the wrong way, not following the crowd. You've heard the metaphor "fish swimming upstream"? That Was me! Several people told me -some rudely, some just very confused- "You are going the wrong way!".
And that's when it all settled into place. As I was walking down the ramp following the crowd, I felt so uncomfortable. It metaphorically reeked from the image of how so many people live their lives: following the crowd, striving for the American Dream, not trying to go their own way, or even paying attention to where this path would lead you.
But then there are the select few, who realize that following along isn't going to lead them where they want to go. So the start to work their way to their goal. And people take notice. Some are offended that you dare to defy the system. Many are confused about why you would do something so obviously "unnatural".
"You can't be a missionary?! You are a single woman."
"You haven't had a boyfriend in how long?! What do you mean you aren't ready to settle down yet?"
"Why would you want to spend a year of your life living out of a backpack?"
But we keep going anyways. We defy the system. We don't care how many people and circumstances are telling us that we can't do this, that it's against natural "rules" of how to be an adult. We press forward because our prize is not the satisfaction of following the rules, but in a life lived to the fullest!
