Less than a week ago, I went to Atlanta for launch on the World Race. Launch is supposed to be an exciting time for racers. It is supposed to be a time where you are pumped up and readying to head out for a year. It wasn’t for me. Actually, it was really, REALLY hard. It sucked.
Launch Started on Sunday at 3pm. I went to Passion City Church that day, then said goodbye to my grandparents and aunt. Then, I went to lunch with my parents. My parents had stuff going on for “parent launch” starting at 1pm. When they left, I broke down. I can’t explain how bad it hurt, and it still hurts. Just typing this and thinking about how it felt is making me want to cry. I miss them still. I probably won’t stop, it will just lessen. I went to launch at 3pm and got settled in. It was exciting. We had a session that was overwhelming and dinner. Then, we worshiped with our parents. It was AMAZING! We worshiped and prayed together. After that, my team and I spent time with our parents. Later on we went back to our hotels and I helped a few people pack. I ended up not going to bed until almost 2am. On top of not sleeping a lot, we had to wake up early for a 3 hour session that only had one short break. Then, we went to lunch with our parents and said goodbye. Directly following our goodbyes, we spent another 3 hours in session learning more stuff. I spent hours with people and had a worship service and spent more time with people. I didn’t get much time alone or to process or to sleep. It was really hard. It was overwhelming, it hurt, it was heartbreaking, I wanted to go home. I couldn’t help but cry. After, those three days, we traveled for 4 days. We traveled with little sleep and we went back to O’hare in Chicago, so it felt like I hadn’t even left yet. That was harder. I didn’t want to leave. It hurt, but God called me. And, so I went.
Doing what God calls you isn’t always easy. It sometimes even hurts. I’ve grown a lot from this experience already. But it isn’t easy. It isn’t always fun. It’s still hard. And it still hurts. It’s hard to want your dad to hug you when he can’t. It’s hard to want to Skype your mom and tell her all about where you are you can’t get the internet to work. It’s even hard to travel that long without comforts from home. It’s just plain hard.
What has God called you to do that you aren’t doing because it’s hard?
