Before the Race, I was over everything. I gave up on religion and I was giving up on God. I mean, I believed in Him, but I had no desire to follow and obey Him. If I am honest, I didn’t want to leave for the Race because I liked the life I created, even though I gave up on so many of my dreams and settled for “good enough” in so many areas.
Sometimes I sit with my friends and we guess what our lives would be like if God didn’t intervene through the World Race. When I look at the likelihood of my future without God, I shudder.
HERE: Ever since I started thinking about college when I was young, I knew I wanted to go to college out of state. I wanted to leave Florida so desperately. Once I got older I narrowed my options to Alabama or… well… Alabama. That was my only option, the only school I applied for, my dream school! Yet, I was planning on transferring to a college nearby in Florida to be near my (then) boyfriend, considering moving in with him. I think to “worse case scenario” and I would’ve moved in with my boyfriend, possibly engaged and pregnant, while not talking to my family, probably not going to college anymore, and giving up my dream of moving to Russia. That is the cold hard truth. And that is terrifying.
So, it is an understatement to say that I am simply “grateful” for this divine intervention.
Coming on the Race radically changed my life without me even realizing. So I am going country by country highlighting lessons learned:
SWAZILAND:
- I learned all about my idols. My hair, boyfriend, phone, comfort, and independence. Well I shaved my head, broke up with my boyfriend, didn’t have power for almost 2 1/2 months and my phone was stolen, was severely uncomfortable being that I was striped away from comforts and thrown into the middle of Swaziland, and I had to follow rules and respect authority. I learned how to lay down my idols in full surrender. SURRENDER – my word for that season.
- I also learned that I am not entitled to anything. There were so many things I thought I deserved. Those same things were unavailable and I learned the difference between necessities (like food) and blessings (WiFi, power, privacy). I had to SURRENDER my good-ole American entitlement.
NEPAL:
- I learned (and am still learning) how to let people help me. I HATE humbling myself and asking for help when I genuinely need it. Well, I was practically dying for a week unable to eat without throwing up and staying up all night near-puking. I couldn’t stand up because I was severely dehydrated (couldn’t drink water either because it would come right back up) so I couldn’t do anything to take care of myself. When the only two healthy people went out to buy food for us, and throw away my bags of vomit, it brought me pain to watch people serve me. They reminded me that they want to help, I just have to let them know how. It is a continuous lesson I am learning, but that was the beginning. My word? – HUMILITY. It was surely a humbling experience.
INDIA:
- I learned how to rest. I embraced the fact that I am an introvert (like 56% introvert 44% extrovert) and that I love people, but I refuel from alone time. Learning and embracing this fact about myself equipped me to take care of myself better.
- I also learned how to trust God with the difficult things in my life and resting in the fact that he will take care of things even when I can’t. And in my trust I found rest, and in my rest, I experienced healing for the first time.
- I grew in strength when I pushed through even though I almost booked a ticket home. That made me tougher instead of giving up quickly. It is only fitting that my word was: ENDURANCE (being that India was one of the hardest two months of the Race).
GUATEMALA:
- I learned how to choose into God even when there is distractions and schedules. Even if it means waking up at 5:30am some mornings.
- I learned what it looks like to fight for a relationship even when you get hurt or things get rocky (still learning).
- I found confirmation that my spiritual gift is prophecy and that I am a “feeling prophet” (comment if you want me to explain this more in another blog because it’s weird).
- I learned how to internally process and take things to God first rather than solely leaning and depending on my friends and their “worldly wisdom”.
- I had many revelations about my future for Russia (moving there permanently, woohoo!)
- I became so at peace with being single, that if there is no man that aligns with my vision for my future and missions, then I am okay with never marrying. This is a big deal because I hated being single my whole life. When I got older I was constantly pursuing someone or being pursued… I was never genuinely and completely single. I am excited for this season of being just that. A great way to end, my words for this season were: REVELATION and GROWTH.
The Race is one of the hardest things I unknowingly got myself into. Yet, God had so much in store for me. This past year was priceless and these lessons have matured and grown me so much. I am grateful for all that God has done. This divine intervention saved my life in every context.
I wanted to share this so you could tangibly see God’s movement and so I could look back and remember that these last nine months actually happened (WHAT?!?!) and were impactful to say the least.
I started the Race lost and confused, broken and prideful. I ended the Race found and still confused, broken but a little more humble; Yet the main and most important difference is that I am striving for God, striving for better. This is how the Race ultimately changed my life.
