As I scroll through my Instagram photos, I can’t help but notice how perfect my life looks, from the outside. In pictures I see the joy that radiates from my eyes and the brightness of my smile.
All the world sees is the radical moments of the race, the moments that over romanticize what life on the race looks like. You get to see all the cute children we play with, the exotic animals we pet, and the beauty that lies within God’s creation that surrounds us and invite us to explore.
Life on the race does look like that. But that’s not all that life on the race is. Those are snapshots and moments that God has blessed us with. That isn’t the reality of life on the race. That isn’t all the race has to offer.
What social media never captures is the mundane or the hard moments. The days that every single person in your house contracts lice and then has to attend a funeral in the same day. Or the nights spent on the floor of a bathroom where you are convinced you are dying because your body is rejecting everything you’ve put inside it.
It doesn’t capture the moments that you fight with the only people that are surrounding you and all you want to do is talk to your friends and family back home but you don’t have any WiFi. Or how the only time you are ever really alone is the couple minutes you get in the bathroom until someone else is banging on the door because 16 people share one bathroom.
Even though social media doesn’t capture the mundane and the hardships, it also doesn’t adequately capture the beautiful moments.
The moments where a teammate has their arms wrapped around you, speaking life over you, and it’s the only thing holding you together when everything else is falling apart. All the countless nights spent surrounded by people worshipping God, whether that be singing, crying, praying, screaming, and all together it sounds like chaos but it’s the most beautiful chaos you’ve ever heard because it’s the sound of people laying down their lives.
What you can’t see in a picture is how Jesus Christ is breaking chains, changing hearts, and restoring the lives of your teammates and the people of the community you live in. You can’t see the depth of the love our Father has for us and how much He is fighting for every person that surrounds you. And even when the lessons hurt so bad that you cry and you can feel you’re heart breaking, you know that it’s only because God is molding and shaping your heart to match His.
It’s nothing the race does except gives you the time and space for God to come and fill. And He fills it so well. He teaches you that it’s okay to look in the mirror and love yourself because He doesn’t make junk. He teaches you about having authority in Christ and bringing kingdom everywhere you walk. He teaches you about serving, sacrifice, love, wrath, grace and goodness.
Mostly He just reveals more and more of Himself to you everyday. And that’s the reality of life on the race. That’s the reality of life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
