Some truth about the Race:
I came out here eager to serve, to love, to live. But as it turns out the things that are difficult at home are difficult on the race too.
Serving doesn’t get any easier. You get tired and calloused both physically and emotionally. The more you serve, the more you realize that you can’t save everyone, and you become unsure of God’s presence in the midst of devastation. But then you see first hand His arms bringing beauty from ashes, unspeakable joy, and genuine love in the darkest and most surprising places.
One thing I know for sure is that loving doesn’t come as easily as one would think. The race isn’t a free pass from drama or working at relationships. Community doesn’t manifest itself spontaneously. You have to work at it.
You have to choose it.
I have come to realize that living in community is a continual unfolding of choices. I will tell you from experience that choosing into a community by loving the same people who have taken part in both unintentionally wounding you as well as very intentionally calling up the greatness in you, is difficult to say the least.
Forgiveness is hard. Reconciliation is harder. Redemption sounds like a fairy-tale ending, and you stop believing that God does indeed redeem all things.
It all comes back to choices.
Choose love and forgiveness, choose to believe in the sweetness redemption and the impact of community even when it hurts, and even when it’s hard. When you’re absolutely drained and there is nothing left in you to fight…
Choose it.
This life and this race are messy and beautiful. Sometimes it sucks and sometimes it’s filled with wonder. You wish it away for the promised comforts of normalcy and then you realize the blessing of forgoing normalcy to step into something past the point of your own complacency. Sometimes you let go and sometimes you fight harder for people as well as ideals. It’s real, and it’s raw, and it’s never like the movies.
Choose it.
