Our stories are written, written by someone who posses a captivating love. A love for His creation. God creates and empowers his creation through the story He has laid in front of us. He’s the author who wrote the ultimate love story. While writing that story, He was, and still is, creating the stories within us that each of us call life.
I relate the story He’s created for us, to an actual fictional teenage realistic fiction. He brings us through our climatic scenes. He laughs with us during our lovestruck girly stage. He cries with us during our breakups. He waits for us as we desperately choose into rebellion. He builds and strengthens us up through our brokenness. He knows chapters we so often want to read ahead and figure out, but He reminds us softly that we weren’t chosen to be the Author, but the main character.
My story starts with me, the college dropout just seeking adventure. I signed up for this whirlwind, called the world race, not having really a clue what I was about to step into. I was just in for something cool, something that got me out of the classrooms. The World Race was my escape out. It was my adventure.
Indeed, an adventure it was. Teaching English at a Thai school, adventure. Eating crickets, adventure. Working on farms at 5am, adventure. Being a track coach in Africa, adventure. Riding on twenty hour buses across South Africa, adventure. Living in a Cambodian village, adventure. Living and working at a children’s home in Nicaragua, adventure. Living in four different countries, adventure.
So yes I experienced adventure. I also live in the greatest adventure of all though, a life with the Creator, the Author himself. I see the beauties He creates and writes in my story for me to see, for me to witness. I feel the new mercies He gifts me each morning as if I am turning a new page. I see other characters that He crosses my path with, for me to love and feel loved by. I’ve lived in the communities He creates for me to develop and cultivate the dream He’s instilled inside of my heart.
I read into the book, my story. I went through chapters, I looked back at some previous pages and learned to uncrease the corners of the pages I thought mattered. I don’t have to keep flipping back and reliving the times that are unsatisfying. I found freedom on this adventure. I broke chains on this adventure. I learned to be vulnerable on this adventure, because vulnerability is the key to connection. Living in community has taught me that, oh yeah also a huge adventure.
The World Race is just a chapter in my life, maybe a few chapters since it contained so much, but it’s not the end. Life keeps going. Mountains are still moving. The Author is still creating, creating greatness. The World Race is not the greatest thing to happen in my life. It’s definitely a great thing that happened though. It’s been one of my favorite chapters so far, but it’s not the end of greatness. He’s still writing. It’s one of those parts of a story that you underline and take lots of notes in the margins. I took a a few pictures and I wrote a few good nuggets in my journal. Maybe you will too.
My story is not titled The World Racer who did great things. The title looks more like the Sinner who sought after adventure and hasn’t stopped. Adventure is out there everywhere my friends, it doesn’t only exist in third-world countries. You just have to open your eyes to the life the Lord wants you to live with Him as the Author. That’s when adventure truly begins.
I wish I could write out in full all that the Lord has done through my story these past nine months, but a blog post wouldn’t do it justice. I’ve seen things most twenty year-olds won’t ever see. I’ve lived in most places college students would dread. I’ve loved the unlovable that most people pass over without a glance. I’ve grown accustomed to things most Americans wouldn’t justify as normal. I’ve seen the Lord in ways I wouldn’t have even known before the Race.
So yes, I did come on the World Race for the adventure, but I came to learn how to see adventure in my story. In the story the beautiful Author has written. This story sure does rock. Yours does too. Take a look inside sometimes, you might be surprised at how captivating of an Author he truly is.
Thank you for everything and for truly making this one of my favorite adventures yet, you all rock
Vick
