I know y’all have all seen “The Lion King.” There is a part in the movie where Simba is lured into this valley, and next thing you know, the hyenas are creating a huge stampede of wildebeest! As Simba runs from the oncoming herd, he quickly climbs a tree and seeks refuge. Seconds later, the limb in which his life hangs on is struck by a wildebeest and begins to break. As he plummets towards the ground, his Father, Mufasa, jumps to his rescue, scoops him up, and saves his life. Next we see his Father place him on higher ground away from the danger, and Simba watches as his Dad makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Honestly, right now, I can relate to that so much. Since being home, a lot of times I’ve felt like Simba must have felt dangling out over a sea of chaos and confusion. I’ve felt weak, confused, helpless at times, and un-sure of what to do, but right as I reached the end of myself, you know what happens? My Heavenly Father jumped in, caught me, and set me on higher ground. This story ends a little differently though, because my Father didn’t fall into the chaos and die. No, my Heavenly Father already did that for me. He took EVERYTHING He knew I’d be faced with, took it on Himself in human form as Jesus, and already conquered the things of past, present, and the things in life that are still to come.
It hasn’t been easy coming back home. To be honest with you, I’ve not really stopped since I returned. It seems like the past year of my life was one long dream. Sometimes I can’t wrap my head around it! “Was I dreaming all of that? There’s no way all that stuff actually happened!” Sure enough though, it’s as real as anything else.
It’s been weird waking up each day without 39 other people in the room with me. I, for some reason, still can’t grasp the fact that toilet paper can go in the toilet and doesn’t need to go in the waste bin anymore, I can drink the water from the faucet, and there are plenty of other things I could add to this list. So many things about life “here” is so different from life “over there.” Some days I miss it and then other days I don’t… I’m sure this process will continue for a while. I just have to keep focused though in the midst and believe that God has something so incredible in store. And I truly believe He does. He wouldn’t take me on a crazy 11 month long adventure, wreck my world, and then just put me back in “real life” and expect me to go back to the way it was before. I don’t believe that for a second.
That’s just a little of the emotions being back home has brought. I just continue to realize more and more each day though, I have a Heavenly Father who LOVES ME SO MUCH!
So what have I been doing you ask…? Well, here’s a brief glimpse into what I’ve been into this past month and what my “next step” in life is.
July 28th- My flight landed back in the US of A!
July 29th- I surprised my family, church family, and friends back home!
August 2nd- I headed over to Snowbird (the camp I used to work at) to reconnect with some friends! It was great! Also, the same day, one of my best friends in the whole world, Andrew, came to see me and stay a couple days!
August 5th- I headed back home with Andrew to Virginia for some hang out time.
August 7th- Andrew had received free tickets to Busch Gardens, so we rode some coasters for the day! Later that night he dropped me off at Caroline’s (a fellow world racer) house and I spent some time catching up with her.
August 8th- Caroline took me to meet up with David and Kacie Lynn, and I rode from Richmond, Virginia back to Franklin with them.
August 9th- Kacie Lynn used to work at Dollywood, so since we got free tickets, we (Kacie, David, Jess, and Myself) spent the day hanging out and riding some rides!
August 10th- Kacie headed home, and David stayed with me until we had to be in Gainesville, GA on the 18th!
During that time, I had the chance to have some good conversations with friends and family, and it was good getting to spend time with David. We were also blessed to get to speak at my other best friend, Casey’s, Bible study. Getting to share about the race was great…
Continue to “STAMPEDE! Part 2”
