I grew up moving a lot. Not exactly like military families, but often enough that I attended quite a few different schools and occupied several different homes. It taught me a very useful skill: how to make friends quickly. I’m extroverted to my core and being The New Kid presented annual opportunities to make new friends. I’m sort of nosy; I like to hear people’s stories and figure them out. But I didn’t learn how to be a loyal, long-term friend. Why bother? Moving a lot meant that I didn’t learn how to work through conflicts with friends, and often didn’t experience friendship-intimacy. My friendships usually disintegrated with the first real fight or when I transferred to a new city/school.
Enter my 27th year and a lot of growth in being a friend. My World Race squad of almost 50 is a whole clan of current/potential lifelong friendships. But my instinct is to bail. To start over, again, with a new squad. Some squads have only half as many people while mine has a waitlist. There is a need for some people to move from my route and join another. And, yippee, new people to meet and befriend.
When I signed up for the Race, I acknowledged early on that it has very little to do with the countries, that God is everywhere and the route is actually kind of a small detail in the whole process. I’ll grow and stretch no matter the location. People need Jesus everywhere.
But it would be easy for me to leave Route 1 and join a different route. The challenging thing for me to do is to stay with my current squad. To own it. To get to know them more intimately, to love them each personally.
In spite of the temptation to migrate to a new squad, I am choosing to stay. I’ll have plenty of nomad tendencies when I’m actually on the Race; I will spend the next 5 months creating bonds with my squad. And, if we’re being honest (why bother being anything but?), sometimes they drive me crazy, already. I thought I was going to lose my head if I had to read one more message from them about Super Bowl football happenings. But that negativity is about me, not them. It’s a chance for me to learn to love them like He loves them.
So, July Route 1 Racers: I’m ready for you. My heart is soft for you. I want to break with you, to grow with you. Just keep being you; He and I already love you just the way you are.
