Today, at the end of month 11, I ended my Race with a literal race.
Incidentally, it was the eleventh 5k I’ve run in my life, and I ended up walking for eleven minutes of it.
Now, this is it.
I’m packing to move out of my last ministry site. Tomorrow I’ll get up at 430am for the second day in a row, and then…final debrief.
If the World Race is like a 5k, this next week is that last .1 mile. Every continent was like a mile, and just like every race I ran in college, mile 1 felt like it would kill me, mile 2 went by the fastest and 3 felt like a marathon.
But now it’s a straight shot to the finish line.
And unlike any other race I’ve ever run, I don’t feel like sprinting the rest of the way and leaping into my brother’s arms at the end.
I feel like crawling, drawing it out as long as I can, maybe even sitting down and freezing time for a while.
I know, I know. I’ve wasted a lot of time complaining, and this has indeed been the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
I’ve been awake for 60+ hours multiple times, and spent countless other nights on planes, buses and trains.
I’ve missed my family so much that I was convinced I’d die before I got to see them again.
I thought I had mono once and turned out to have typhoid.
One month I cried myself to sleep every night because I was so hungry.
Yet I’ve still gained 20 pound between training camp and today.
I’ve had so many dozens of mosquito bites that my legs have been purple with bruises from scratching them so hard.
I drank rain water every day for a week without knowing it.
I singlehandedly destroyed a friendship I’d thought would last forever.
I’ve screamed and cussed at God for hours on end.
Really I’ve just cried more than I have in any other year in my life.
I had a sunburn so bad I had to take a day off ministry.
I’ve missed every holiday at home.
I’ve missed birthdays and weddings and engagements and graduations and funerals.
I’ve watched people suffer like I’ve never seen before and often been helpless to do anything to fix it.
My heart has been ripped out month after month.
I legitimately researched flights home at one point.
But it’s also been the best thing.
I’ve done things I never thought I’d do, and I’ve done things that have been on my bucket list since high school.
I ate a snail and a chicken foot and a cow’s stomach and and a pig intestine and buffalo jerky and an octopus.
I rode a cable car through the jungle.
I went sandboarding in the desert.
I stood on a stage and taught 200 Thai kids how to do the Cupid Shuffle.
I stood in the equator.
I’ve hugged so many orphans.
I climbed the world’s tallest escalator.
I forgave people I didn’t even know I was mad at.
I learned how to love myself.
I learned how easy it actually is to love people.
I learned about real community and found it’s the most beautiful thing in life.
I pet lion cubs and giraffes and monkeys.
I almost got arrested in Zimbabwe.
I made friends with strangers everywhere.
I watched God provide for my biggest and smallest needs and wants, in the most unexpected and the most painfully obvious ways.
Like Paul, I learned how to be content in all circumstances.
I’ve had months where I lost 5 pounds because there was so little food or it was just that bad, and I’ve had months where I gained 10 pounds because the food was that good.
I’ve slept in super comfy beds and I’ve slept in my tent. One night I slept on a bathroom floor at a campsite in a thunderstorm.
I’ve had a hot bath every night for a month, and I’ve had an ice cold shower that I only used 3 times that month.
I’ve had heated toilet seats and I’ve had the nastiest of African squatty potties.
I’ve had 33 cents in the bank, and I’ve had twice as much as I asked God for.
I’ve been on a team that challenged me to my limits, and a team that were my sisters who I cried for two weeks about leaving.
And my least favorite person on the squad became my best friend.
When people ask me to describe my year in one word(I beg you to please not actually ask me this), I’ll say “Life.” They’ll think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m being honest.
It was eleven months of life. Real, true, full, abundant life.
OneRepublic wrote these words, but I think they thought of them because they met a World Racer…
I owned every second that this world could give,
I saw so many places, the things that I did,
With every broken bone,
I swear…I lived.
