At Training Camp, we played the game “Never Have I Ever.” (If you have never played this game, the concept is that one person stands in the middle and proclaims something they have never done that they think others have done in order to swap seats with them and get out of the center.) Mixer games in and of themselves give me anxiety, but this game in particular gives me extra anxiety because the statement I usually come up with in my head as I’m frantically trying to swap seats and avoid the middle is “never have I ever been on a date.” And, this isn’t something I’m sure I want to bring up in a group of people I’ve just met.
As the week went on, we talked about identity and shame, and I began thinking more about why I wanted to avoid that statement. Saying “never have I ever been on a date” would highlight my own insecurities, and ultimately these three questions that we all wrestle with at some point:
Am I significant? Am I loved? Am I good enough?
A lot of these insecurities stem from how both popular and Christian culture view/treat singleness, not in God’s truth. And, what I learned at training camp was that shame only has power when we hide. If we bring it into light, we gain healing and truth.
To dwell in shame would only serve accentuate my insecurities and mask the truth that is found in the Cross that I am significant, loved, and good enough. Hiding in shame at my singleness would also be dishonest about how I was led to the World Race, and would cover up the beautiful and transformative things God brought into my life in this season.
The truth is that I first learned about the World Race last March while taking an online a course called “Make the Most of Your Single Life” led by Stephanie May Wilson (a 2011 World Race alum — read about how God radically transformed her life in her free eBook, The Lipstick Gospel, and check out her website HERE!).
During this course, Stephanie challenged us to make a three-year bucket list as if we knew for certain that we only had three years left of being single, and to actually try and do those things. After hearing Stephanie mention her own experiences on the World Race and doing a little digging of my own, I decided to write “join the World Race” on my list (regardless of how unrealistic it felt at the time).
As time went on, I couldn’t let it go. God continued to place the World Race on my heart. And, the more I thought about it, I realized that there would not be a “better” or “more convenient” time to go on the World Race and I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip away from me.
And, honestly, when is God’s will for our lives “convenient”? He calls us to join Him in being countercultural by creating and cultivating a new Kingdom-minded culture!
From there the pieces just fell together. What had seemed unrealistic just a few months before became reality when I filled out my application last July and got the phone call that I was accepted mid-September.
I’ve decided that I don’t want to waste this season of my life waiting for the next one. I want to shape my life around building God’s Kingdom, in every season with what I’ve been given.
And, I hope you choose to join me in challenging yourself to fully embrace the life that you’ve been given rather than waiting for that next thing (whatever that may be for you: graduation, a relationship, a new job, kids, retirement, etc.), to chase big and audacious dreams and see how God shows up.
“Brave doesn’t always involve grand gestures. Sometimes brave looks more like staying when you want to leave, telling the truth when you want to do is change the subject.” – Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect
