If I could have one superpower (if teleportation wasn't an option) I would control time. I would want the ability to fast forward, rewind, and pause time. But if there's one thing I learned this last month, it was that life is a continual process. There is no pause button for life.
In a conversation with some of my squadmates, we came to the realization that so often we look at the world race as an event that is almost separate from our normal lives. It's often that we stop and look at each other and say, "Can you believe this is real life right now?" Sometimes life on the world race feels like a dream because everything is so foreign and new and exciting! But the Lord really grounded me this month, hitting me with the realization that the world race isn't a pause on real life, but simply a continuation of the life I was already living.
We give so much glory to the world race, when in fact it is God who is really doing the work in us. When I go home and tell all my friends and family about my experiences and the changes that happened internally and externally, I want to make sure that all the credit is directed towards the true source: God. Not the world race. The things that happened to and within me are not locationally or situationally spurred, but spurred in the place and time determined by God. He could have chosen to accomplish His work at home or in eleven different countries. He can work anywhere in anything. In fact, I have come to admire those who experience the Lord and grow in tremendous ways while living at home. The world race is designed and organized in such a way that growth is encouraged. In this environment, it would be more difficult to prevent yourself from growing than to just allow it to happen.
All that to say, I am beginning to recognize that upon returning home the ways that I grow may look different and it may take more work. But, the growth does not end when the world race ends. I don't have to be on the other side of the world, living in a mud hut, wearing the same five outfits, and technologically-isolated in order to experience God. His ability to work transcends anything of this world. The world race is not the ultimate be-all, end-all of spiritual maturity – it's just the way that God chose to grow me specifically and it's just the beginning!
