We, Racers are so much like the Israelites.
It’s something that I started noticing last month in Nicaragua, and it’s definitely not something I am excluded from.
Imagine with me for a moment…
A year ago, most of us were in our comfortable homes, in comfortable neighborhoods. Some of us had full-time jobs, some of us were graduating college. In any stage that we were in at home, we could safely say it was pretty “normal” according to the environment around us. We were pretty content with where we were.
What we didn’t realize is that we were slaves.
We were in bondage to our jobs. We were slaves to our student debt that compounded over the standard four years we were in school. We made sports, making money, and living a life of luxury (by the world’s standards) our idols.
Then one day, someone came along and told us there was more. There was a promised land to beheld.
With a little bit of kicking and screaming, and rolling around on the floor, we packed our 75 liter packs with everything we thought we would need for a year “in the wilderness.” Does that sound like something familiar?
I can remember when the dialogue between Moses and the Israelites about whether to stay in Egypt or to go sounded a lot like my internal dialogue. The things that I needed to do to prepare often seemed like tests the Pharaoh placed in front of Moses. The financial deadlines that I didn’t think I could reach sounded something like turning water into blood. But God took care of them all.
In the end, we launched. We had our own exodus.
But by month eight, we were tired.
We had just finished our second month of sleeping on the floor, and we were going into another month of it. Our Pastor took us on a 3-day trip to visit other churches and we were able to sleep on pews one night and real beds the next. Yes, we were thankful, but I still remember the grumble in my own head as I thought about returning to my sleeping pad in my “cozy” tent.
We had three months of cooking for ourselves, trying to maneuver grocery stores and taxi rides, and there were complaints about what was for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know in my head, I thought, “If I have to look at one more bowl of corn flakes, I am going to throw it out the window. The gallotes can eat it!” Now a month where we have no say in the food, preparation or meal size?
It’s kind of ridiculous how entitled we think we are.
The Israelites thought life at the foot of Sinai was difficult. It practically seemed like torture that they couldn’t build their own golden idols. They didn’t trust that the God that freed them from Pharaoh would take care of them — and to show them He would, He sent manna from Heaven. He gave them a cloud to guide them during the day, and to protect them from the heat of the desert sun. He gave them a pillar of fire to guide them during the night, and to provide warmth.
Thinking about it, I doubt the Israelites had sleeping pads. Some people on the Race don’t even have sleeping pads. How dare I complain!
I was served well-cooked food, an overabundance of food, and that’s a terrible thing? Many of the children I have seen here are barely fed. How dare I not be thankful!
This was how I was feeling leading up to month eight debrief. Thankfully, the leadership at AIM is here for us. They spoke Truth into us and worked at preparing us for the last three months of this adventure.
And now, as month ten is looming ahead of us, I want to remind us, IsRACElites, that the promised land is still ahead of us. God has not forgotten us, or left us out here, so long as we do not report back that it is impossible.
In “How to Read the Bible Book by Book,” by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, they write, “Crucial here [in Leviticus] is the fact that Israel is still camped at the foot of Sinai—a wilderness area—where they will spend a full year being molded into a people before God will lead them toward the conquest of Canaan.”
Our plans for after the Race are all different and we are trying to figure out what God is calling us into. Remember that this is your promised land! He is calling you into your Canaan!
Don’t look at the application or the interviews and say, “I cannot go up against the other applicants; they are stronger than I am!”
The Lord delights in you! He will bring you into this promised land, which flows with milk and honey.
Do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear!
