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Before I came on The World Race, I often found myself in my brown cushiony swirly chair, browsing around on the website, reading the blogs, the FAQ’s page, and studying the story-telling pictures. I remember reading this statement by one of the former Racers: “I found out that The World Race really isn’t about saving the world. It’s more about saving me.”
…Interesting… At the time, it honestly sounded a little self-focused, but intriguing. Still, I knew I needed saving, and I also knew that Jesus is pretty clear that in order to find your life, you have to loose it. I had an aching in my core to do more than I was doing, and be more than I was being. College was done, and I had a full time job waiting for me; I thought I was on the road to marriage and though there was a lot of love, there was little peace. I was planning my next steps, but still felt like a giant part of ME was missing.
I had no interest in a white picket fence at the time. I knew I had very little idea about who I was, and though there were a lot of options on the table, I had even less of an idea of what to REALLY do with my life. And if I didn’t purposefully figure it out, then I would default into something that I could very well do, probably even be successful at, have a nice, comfortable life and attain all the elements of the American dream… but would it be because that’s what I was MADE for? Or would it be because I defaulted into it because it was “the next step”?
I came on The World Race for many, many reasons. I wanted to loose my life to find it. I wanted to be Love to people who had never known Him. I wanted to do the greater things Jesus said I’d do. I wanted to get it through my thick skull that the world does not revolve around me. I wanted to get wrecked, and live the clich�: there is more to life than this. I wanted to go and make disciples of ALL nations, not just converts of all nations. I wanted to understand these abstract terms, like faith, hope, love, truth, community, and The Holy Spirit.
And here I am in month 9 of my Race, thinking back to the day when I used to think it seemed a tad bit selfish… that this Race might be more about saving me than it is about saving the world… but that was at first glance and before I actually got out here. Then you take a closer look into the thing, and it looks like this:
A generation is asleep. They are breathing. But few are dreaming. And even fewer are moving. Their eyes are closed, and they don’t know themselves in an awaken state. They don’t know who they are, or who they aren’t.
A generation of Christians don’t operate in their God-given authority. They don’t know they have it. They don’t know what “IT” is. Living in the Kingdom of God is something distant and far off, attainable only on the day that we meet St. Peter at the pearly gates.
But then, one by one, they catch wind of a chance to do something out of the box, something that might act as a vehicle to drive them from their slumber. They abandon everything comfortable. They sell their stuff, they leave their jobs indefinitely, they kiss their moms and dads goodbye, and they move their lives away from their friends and malls and movie theaters and they show up in Gainesville, Georgia (of all places) for training on how to effectively live the next 11 months of their lives. And as one of my dearest friends said, “Life now changes”…..
They launch out of foreign countries, living with language barriers and cultural hurdles, surviving off of only what they can carry on their backs. They are dropped into a community, forced to get outside of themselves, to serve something other than their own agenda, pride, or fear, and after 11 months, they have rubbed off the sleep from their eyes and are beginning to ask the tough questions. The ones that matter. They are being saved of the things that defined them before, and for once, they see life through eyes that believe they can actually change the world.
Before they can invade the world with Kingdom, Kingdom has to invade them.
…and then, one by one, they come back. Radicalized. None of this “nice young man” or “nice young lady” mess. They impregnate their communities with the truth they learned. They invade their states with Kingdom. They invite other people into this thing, and then those invite others, and those invite others…. And before we know it, this generation has woken up their own generation.
People begin to taste something that activates every single one of their taste buds, and the dullness they inhaled before is just plain boring and won’t cut it anymore. They find something that is more vibrant than they thought possible, and once they live in it, they are willing to give their lives up for it. Except, it’s for more than a cause, and for more than a feeling. It’s actually for the One who came up with the whole thing… because we are living in the manifestation of His sheer genius.
This year isn’t about 11 countries in 11 months. It’s not about stamps on a passport. It’s not about seeing the world and doing some good deeds along the way. This is not the Peace Corps. It’s not about doing humanitarian stuff.
It’s about His will being done on earth as it is in Heaven.
This is a movement.
