dear future racer
You’re doing the world race? You’re thinking about doing the world race? You have no desire to do the race but you wanna know know more about this random thing i’ve been doing for 7 months? You came to the right place.
Like most of you will do or are doing, before i left for my race i read alll the blogs. Packing lists, expectations, crazy testimonies, blogs about how much everyone loved their team, more packing lists..
Oh man i thought i was ready. I was an expert before i even left the states. I was ready to see healing, salvations, revival, all the things you dream for God to show you on a mission trip. I believe wholeheartedly that it is God’s desire to show us all of these things, i also believe that to get to this point where we are ready we must do the mundane tasks, the tasks we think we could never see the Lord in. (this is usually where the Lord shows up by the way).
Heres a list of what the world race ISN’T:
It is not a vacation(or a christian sightseeing trip)
It is not an opportunity to take pictures with cute babies in every country you visit(sometimes this is just a perk)
It is not comfortable(you might live in places that seem comfortable or get comfy with your squad and your friends but spiritually, you should never be comfortable) pray dangerous prayers for God to stretch you and grow you and take comfort away from you so He can take its place.
It is not a place to run to. If there are things or people at home or from your past that you have not dealt with or had reconciliation with, you won’t escape that by coming on the race. You will be confronted with those hurts and situations, and it will be much worse when you are in a foreign place, feeling alone. The world race will expose you. Bring things into the light before you leave so that when people shine a flashlight into you, they won’t be surprised at what they see.
It is not a time to completely change everything about yourself. Self awareness is great, growth is crucial. The Lord will show you some things you need to change to become more intimate with him. However, the Lord does not want to change you to the point where people can no longer recognize you. He wants to enhance your personality not change it all together.
It is not a place to make your forever friends. This can happen, and i really hope it does for you. I have made friends i will probably always have. But the race is not about that. More often than not you will realize how insanely opposite you are from the people around you. You will love them with all your heart, they will be YOUR PEOPLE for a season, and sometimes you will realize the only thing you have in common is Jesus. This is beautiful. This means you can be unified in the spirit to bring Jesus to those around you and on the outside be like the breakfast club (shout out to my team). Every single person you are with, yes even the ones who you cannot seem to see eye to eye with is there for an intentional reason in the season you are in.
Let me finish off by saying
The world race is not a place to hold ANY expectations. Forreal ya’ll. Even if it’s just something you think could happen or something you feel like is going to happen, this is detrimental to the growth in your life. People and things always fail. When you put your expectations on fleshly things, they. Will. fail. This is not something to be upset about. Just know that it is the truth and only rely on God. He will always satisfy you. He will always succeed the things you expected or the things you didn’t even have on your radar.
Ok now that you know what the world race isn’t let me tell you what it is.
This season is one of the craziest, most beautiful times in your life. You will grow in intimacy with the father. He will become your sustenance. You will learn things about yourself that will help you in every relationship in your life, you will experience community like you never have before. You will constantly have people backing you up and interceding for you. You will have to work at all of these things every day, even the ones where you want to stay in bed all day, even when you want to slap your teammate, even when home is sounding really nice. But when you do you will experience love, joy, patience, and freedom more than you ever have.
Please please please reach out to me to talk about literally anything. i love to talk.
All my love, brooke
