Coming on the World Race, I desired a relationship with Jesus that was far more intimate than I have ever experienced before. If I’m being honest, I anticipated that it would be a year away from everything at home and an adventure of a lifetime. As I sat in class my senior year at Bethel, I would dream about the World Race. I would come up with scenarios, all I wanted to accomplish, and the way that I would connect with Jesus in a way that I never have before. Now being on the Race, I realize that my life’s foundation is built on preparing to prepare for that “next thing”. As I have had countless hours during my travel days to dream and come up with this “next thing”, I was hit in the face with the reality that I have a difficult time taking in the present moment.
On top of this, I was given a note by Laura, one of my squad-mates. It stated that I appear to be a man with a “go big or go home” kind of mentality. If I am going to do something, I will do it with 110% or I won’t do it at all. Although this is no fatal quality or something that must diminish, she heard from the Lord that He desires for me to “love small.” She heard from the Lord correctly. I prayed into it and staying present and finding opportunities to love in little ways could not be any more relevant for my life.
I have always thought that the “next thing” is where I will find the joy and fulfillment that I was always meant to have. I am an idealist and I will always be this way. But in the midst of preparing for that “next thing” I miss the beautiful opportunity to love and serve in little ways right now. I am sitting at an airport in India with my headphones in both ears and the prospect of what is next is ten times more exciting than what I have going on right now. To escape with your mind but be present with your body is no less than death.
This month has been difficult. It’s not easy to be living deeply with others, regardless of external differences, while striving for a greater relationship with Jesus. There is no shortage of inconvenience in the fact that Jesus is calling me to do some hard things. The World Race sure as heck wasn’t supposed to be about bringing up past hurts and emotional scars that I have experienced. No, it was supposed to be about embarking on a great adventure and spending introspective time with Jesus! In reality, as I sit in the here and now, I realize that Jesus had different plans and He is working unanticipated miracles in me every single day.
As I previously stated, I’m in an airport. There is a balding, Hindu man in a suit sitting behind me who does not know Jesus. He is one person away from knowing his created value and why Jesus loves him. This man is the reason that I am on the World Race. You and I have the ability to set the spiritual environment wherever we go. I want my life to be made up of a million ways that I chose to love small instead of a thousand where I embraced the opportunity to love big. I can only do that if I stay here in the present and seek out ways to love and serve out of the overflow that is poured into me by Jesus. The World Race is my new normal but four months ago I would have killed to be sitting exactly where I am.
Jesus’ life was the ultimate example of living interruptedly and loving small. He woke up and He lived that day for exactly what it was: a gift. He was a partner to the Father’s work, lived in constant prayer, and continuously loved like it was always going to be His last day on earth. I think of Luke 9:52 when Jesus sets out for Jerusalem. He was determined to reach goals and dreams that He desired to accomplish when he arrived. But, en route, Jesus was present. He found ways to love small, and chose to be interruptible. In Luke 9:51-56, 57-62, and 10:1-12 Jesus continuously stops to spend time with people in Samaria, random individuals along the road, and He chose to instruct and send out the seventy-two. Later on, He drops everything to rejoice with those same seventy-two and to spend private time with them.
Please, for the sake of life, don’t wish away exactly where you are. You will be dead in the blink of an eye. There will always be that next thing that will desperately attempt to grasp our attention in every way. Our lives are made up of these little moments and to take one for granted means that you could lose out on a monumental way that Jesus is trying to use you. You could be working a 9-5, going to school, or working towards a goal in some other facet unbeknownst to me. Whatever that may be, you are where you are for a reason. God created this day for you before time began. Do not take one second for granted because as arrive at your current dream, it will be met with new dreams of it’s own. That next best thing is right in front of you.
I pray this over those who read this today.
