The world race is not like I ever imagined it to be. It’s harder than I thought, but so much better than I ever imagined. We are fifty hot messes living for Christ. Together. In one house. Where sickness lies and celebration is constant. Like I said 50 hot mess people living for the kingdom.
Yesterday began like any other day. I awoke to 50 people surrounding me. It was just like how the other 20 something days this month began. I went through the motions of life: find coffee, talk to people, get logistics set so I don’t have to tell the squad that I have no idea how we are getting to the airport for our next country, find secret place to escape from the constant of people and recharge my energy, eat food. Literally, just like any other day. Throw in ministry and a lot of other things and you have a day in the life of a racer. Today began normal, but we all knew it was going to end different than the many previous nights before.
Prom. When you’re on the race you basically lose all concept of what it looks like to not be a fool or not have someone watching you thinking: “what the heck are these crazy westerners doing?” So with that being said, tonight was no different. We got an invitation to a squad wide prom. Theme: Old Testament (because why not?) We were all excited to dance and celebrate our last week in Nepal, and me being the person I am, was already plotting how I was going to win best costume, which I did… Hold out, you’ll see a picture later. So anyways, I had my date ( my beautifully, awesome teammate/ partner in crime) and I was all set to go.
So, a couple of my squad mates and I decided if we were going to do prom we were going to DO prom. We decided we were going to go out to eat with our friends, get ready together, and take some pictures. It was just like the good ole high school days. We went and got dinner. We were all feeling great and we’re excited for our costumes and to get ready to go over to the local coffee house where prom was being held. I started to feel a little off, but I made myself forget about it because I was determined to win this costume contest… Which I did… But I’m not bragging.
We got ready. It’s was really hard due to the constant burst of laughter that were coming from Hope and I as we look at each other. The squad had nothing on us.
Cue prom:
We pulled up to the place, and by pulled up I mean walk up because you don’t pull up anywhere unless it’s further than 20 minutes away. We were ready to make our grand entrance: bam! Laughter all around. “Crushed it!!” Was all that ran through my head.
Abraham and Sarah for the win!! I’m telling you. We won a title for this beauty that is placed before your eyes. I was feeling great, sized up my competition and knew they had no chance of beating this. I was on top of the world, but like any pregnant person I had a little feeling of morning sickness. Dance it off, Sydney, you’ll be fine.
After a little while and a lot of dancing I finally couldn’t shake the morning sickness, so I grabbed ole Abe and headed back home. We got back and I climbed into my bed, praying that if I just laid down I would be okay… So here starts the real reason I’m writing this blog. It’s long winded, but this is why the world race is worth all the hard parts in my eyes.
I’m laying in my bed and the first out of probably 20 people come in. The first brings me a bucket and an outpouring of love. Then comes the throw up and the second person, who then took and cleaned out my bucket of throw up and brought it back to me where I had relocated. As I laid on the couch more and more people came in to check on me. An over pouring of love continued to flow from one person to another. Prayer, laughter, leg rubs, water, etc. Anything I needed was already there for me. In a time where I wanted to be home so badly and have my mom take care of me, I couldn’t help but lose that homesickness by the constant overflow of God’s love in others.
The world race is a constant process of give and take. We have really freaking hard days. You have days where you want to hit someone. You have days where you want to fly home and never look back, but those days never stand in comparison to the days like today. Sacrifice and dying to yourself, these are traits I encourage you to learn quickly, because they’ve changed my life. For all the bad days there are 20 good to stand in comparison of them. You’ll feel the love of the Father the second you step out of your bed and encounter the first person for your day. We all know it’s a give and take. We love to give and love to love each other.
So when my night ended with a lot of take and people pouring love over me, it was easy to wake to a situation that required me to give. When dear old Abe/ Hope woke with the same thing I went to bed with my first instinct was to give. I couldn’t help but let that love that was poured into me pour over into her in that moment.
The world race sucks some days. I’ll be honest. I have a thought at least once a week that consists of: “why the heck did I say yes to this?!” Yes, it’s hard, but the only reason I’m still here laying on a floor next to a bucket while my Teammate is laying on the other side of the same bucket is because of the great and vast love of the Father. His beautiful finger prints of love are in everyone of these 50 people who I we consider my family. And therefore, the hard days pale in comparison to days like this.
