Do NOT glorify The World Race. It is not a super holy, glorious trip where in the blink of an eye you leave all your baggage behind, have the most godly bible studies with your team, or where all of your relationships are easier than the ones back at home because you happen to be serving Christ together. It is not a trip where you see miraculous healings on a regular basis (to be honest, I have yet to see one), or where you do everything with the mindset of serving the Lord. It is not a trip that makes you super holy, God-showed-me-the-path-for-my-life-now, I'm-so-much-more- like-Jesus-than-I-was-before-I-left-home kind of trip. The World Race is not a glorified trip that necessarily changes anyone at all. One could easily join this adventure and go home exactly the same person as when they left. Absolutely. It is not a trip for the spiritual elite or for the spiritual inept. It's just a trip. But who you are at the end, who you are in the middle, is a choice. Sanctification is a choice.
It's still a fight to wake up early and spend one-on-one time with God, opening my bible. it is still a fight to think about Jesus at all when there are so many distractions. People. Noise. Activities. It is still a fight to keep your priorities in line. It is still a fight to love people who you don't necessarily feel love for at the moment. It is still a fight to put aside all else that vies for my attention and be alone to pray. Truth be told, it is still a fight to pray. It is still a fight to remember why I am here. Because I am still me, no more a "missionary" (goodness, I sort of despise that word) now because I am overseas than I was when I left Fresno. My fights are still the same as they were at home. They don't quit just because I'm on a "missions" trip.
Everyone who comes on the race is different and has a different story as to how they got here. Some felt "called", some didn't. (I am one who didn't, but that's another blog for another day.) Some have gone to church their whole lives, some didn't. Some are easy to get along with, full of grace, and full of morals and propriety… some aren't.
The World Race, believe it or not, is real life (except in real life I flush toilet paper and live with fewer people). -Pause, sidenote, I say this having only had to use 2 squatty potties so I'll let you know how I feel about this after Africa. Unpause.- I wake up at my normal time at home, read my bible, go for a run (this month at least, yay) and get ready for work. After my job is done for the day, I come home, eat dinner, and hang out with my peeps for the night. I go to bed and wake up to do it all again. Essentially, life is the same. Now for the differences…
I've lived with six other people in the Dominican, 45 people in Haiti, and 11 in Romania. I've called home a church, an ocean front gated compound, and a 2 story apartment. I've called my bed a church pew, a tent, and the top bunk of a real bunk bed. I've done laundry in a bucket, numerous basins (the same ones used to wash 45 people's dirty dishes in, mind you), and a real washing machine. I've called "my morning quiet time space" a back patio, a church stage, the beach shoreline, a downstairs kitchen, and an extra bedroom. I've themed each month differently. The DR was about relationships. Haiti was about construction. Romania has been about prayer and serving servants. My "jobs" have consisted of putting on skits, singing songs, and playing on the playground with kids. Holding people's hands as they've gotten immunization shots and going door to door to homes that have dirt floors to begin the process of putting in cement floors. Teaching English, being part of a bucket brigade to pour concrete at an orphanage, moving heavy blocks, and organizing rebar. I've delivered food to and visited widows, cleaned a church and missionaries' homes, and led worship at church. I've spent my free time in much the same ways as at home… reading, hanging out with friends, watching a few movies, playing the guitar. Life is still life on the race. Just in a different country, in the midst of different cultures, with different languages.
Change, holiness, and becoming more like Christ don't just happen because of being on the race. There is nothing to be glorified about this trip. I have not done anything my first three months that I or anyone else couldn't do at home. Being a missionary has nothing to do with location and everything to do with how you live your life. (Again, I don't like that word. What? People call me that now because it's called a "missions" trip and I'm overseas. That's not what makes a missionary. Pardon my venting about "Christian-ese" lingo.)
I thought by month three I'd be more holy, and by month 11 I'd be through-the-roof, face-glowing-coming-down-from-the-mountain-top-Moses-style glorious… but I don't feel like this at all. I feel normal. Like myself. And it's good. Remembering that this trip is not glorious, but life following after Christ wherever that leads is. He opened doors and extended me an invitation on this crazy adventure and I took it. And I have LOVED every bit of it. But I'm just coming to realize how much so many of us on the race glorified it with all of our lofty dreams and expectations about who we want to become and answers we want to have for our lives before embarking on this journey and how much people back at home still do. It's just life. Lived out elsewhere. Praying to make a difference in people's lives, but knowing I'll be leaving each place in a month from the day I got there. I see things, but will I always remember them? I feel things, but will they always have a place in my heart the way they do now? I hear things, but will they come to mind later? I don't know. All I can do is live in the moment and enjoy each blessed day that I have in each place. And I do. And I pray that I am becoming more like Christ each day on the race. But I've also prayed that for years at home before I left. It's nothing new. Just now, He's able to take different measures to do that. Open my eyes. Reveal new things to me. I love every place I've been. I love the people I've been with. And I AM growing. But not because of the race or it's circumstances of countries and just what I see. But because of my desire to be changed and God's work in me. Because of the people I'm with. Because He's opening my eyes to a greater meaning of the body of Christ. Because He's challenging me to do things I've never done before (uh, hello, lead worship?!).
Because there is no room for comfortability. Because He really is my only constant now. The race is not to be glorified, but it sure is good.
