When you grow attached to the places around you, it makes it difficult when you have to pick life up and move on. But one thing I’ve learned in my first month on the World Race is that the joy the Lord has given me will never be taken away.
When I had to tell my host goodbye in Abidjan, I’m not going to lie, I bawled real hard. We had this connection that could only be understood by the Holy Spirit, and he shattered so many worldly expectations that I had. He called me higher day after day and helped me to walk out joy. So leaving was definitely hard!
On our 14 hour travel day to Ghana, I felt like something was missing. I was in a bus crammed with 67 other people and bags galore. It was uncomfortable; I’m pretty sure my knee caps are still in the back of the 12th row middle seat, and my drool is all over the place. But what I realized as we passed the border between Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana was that my joy was there. I grabbed my money from the bus and headed to get a water from one of the local ladies there. I was in my new Ivorian pants that I felt so great in, and she commented about them. When I told her that I got them made, she asked if I could dance in them, and instantly I began to come alive. For the first time that day I was able to talk to someone who spoke English and wanted to dance with me. It is as if she knew I needed to be loosened up. She began laughing with me and dancing, and as others laughed at us I no longer cared because I was full of joy. Her friends soon joined in and as I turned around to greet them, one said, “You are so full of the Lord. He will do great things on your journey.” This lady didn’t know anything about me, except the fact that she could see the Lord in me.
And that’s the point! We should be living our lives to the point that others don’t have to talk to us to know we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. This lady watched me dance in the middle of a market with a water bottle in one hand and the other raised to the sky. How have you been living your life? Can others see Christ in you? Because if I’m being honest, I normally don’t show the Holy Spirit like that because I think society will shame me for being joyful in the Lord. I begin to think that others will say I’m some crazy Jesus freak and no one will be my friend. But the truth is that when you have a relationship with the Lord, He brings the right people into your life to remind you who you are meant to be and the things He calls you to do.
So today, I sit here in the back of another van, giving my knees once more to the back of a chair, knowing that the next person I see will have an encounter with the Lord because I have the Lord inside of me.
