I came on the race seeking transformation in myself and for the people that I would get to love and serve everyday. It was a word I came to know throughout Guatemala and it continues to be the desire of my heart in the way I serve, love, seek to change, and grow deeper in my faith. I thought it would be a quick and easy one-time process. However, the process of transforming is one that never stops and requires continual grace and patience.
In John 21:25 it reads, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.” Jesus performed so many miracles and touched hundreds of thousands of lives that it can’t even be completely recorded. Masses of people sought out Jesus in his short life time to be healed and blessed. Yet in Acts 1, Jesus ascends back into heaven and those that remain to be filled by the Holy Spirit; to be transformed were 120 people. So many people seek Jesus to be healed and blessed, but how many Christians actually seek Jesus to be transformed from within? How many sit and expect the Lord to deliver everything instead of stepping out and seeking the Lord with their whole heart?
I got to a point in my life where I thought I was done growing with the Lord. A place where we had reached this peak and we were just going to sit there forever, so I stopped putting in the work. The relationship became stagnant and one-way. I thought the Lord was just sitting on that peak and when I needed help to sleep, to have energy for a day, wisdom, a light that shines so evidently in my life, peace, or any number of things I knew the Lord could provide I would just go back to him. I was looking for healing and blessings. I stopped the journey of transformation and I soon realized there was so much more than what I thought I had achieved with the Lord. So, I came looking to grow deeper with the Lord and to continue that transformation together. No matter how much I wish or think I have conquered the imperfections within me, there will always be the moments that my human nature fails me. There is always room for growth and I have lived this time in my life, the Race, in pursuit of more.
So, when I have the days where I am tired or I miss home, I remember that I didn’t choose this path knowing it was easy. I chose this path and choose to embrace each day to grow and become more like Jesus. I choose to fight each day through the good and the bad because that is where transformation happens. No longer will I sit complacently living one good day to the next, but I will live in the hard moments knowing that the hardest trials bring the sweetest victories. One does not need to be on the other side of the world to learn this lesson, though. Each person lives each day going through their own trials. Your journey is not any less significant than the people who surround you. The trials in our life no matter how big present us with a choice. A choice to embrace those hardships and conquer them with the Lord or allow those hardships to swallow us up while we sit back. We will never reach a sweet spot in life, but as we are transformed through the Lord and what he leads us through, life can become more manageable. It becomes easier to see the goodness in the pain, to find joy in a day, and find purpose in our day to day lives. My challenge for my readers and for myself is to become a proactive christian. A christian who doesn’t just sit back, but seeks the Lord through their everyday life leading to transformation.
