I have five more days in Ecuador before my squad and I leave for Guatemala. Looking back at these past three months, I have seen an abundance of growth in both myself and my squadmates. Here, I’ve met genuine, God-fearing people, learned to walk more like Jesus Christ, and experienced a community that can only be His Kingdom.
The Race has an opportunity at the end of our time in each country to process these memories, good and bad, in the hopes of preparing us to experience all the more in our next country. This weeklong opportunity is called “debrief”. We have sessions led by our mentor and coaches. In the “in between” there is free time to spend with the squad, playing card games, watching a movie, or simply laughing till our abs hurt playing volleyball or fútbol. But after all of this, there is also time to just rest: whether that be physical rest, mental/emotional rest, or resting in the arms of the Lord, spending time with Him.
It’s the first time in three months Racers are given this long of a time to truly rest and have fun. Debriefs are a big deal in the World Race community!!
That said, on the fifth day of debrief, my squad and I got up bright and early to have an adventure day. We left at 7:00 to drive to Lake Quilotoa. [[ Wow. A lake? Big deal. But. it. was!! Check out the cover photo of this blog to see a picture of me and a friend in front of the lake. Just look at her genuine beauty! The lake is pretty too, I guess 😉 ]]
By the time we get back to our debrief, twelve hours have already gone by. It’s now 7:00 pm, dark outside, and we have yet to eat dinner. The entire bus slept for the majority of the way back. I was exhausted from hiking, riding a horse, and canoeing in the lake, barely awake enough to stay up for dinner.
An hour goes by. It’s now around 8:00 and I decide to take a shower for the first time in a week lol. #racethings. My hygiene isn’t as bad as it sounds; I try to brush my teeth every two or three days! <— Mom, I promise the latter sentence was a lil jokey joke. Any-who, as I’m in the shower I couldn’t have been more awake than I was in that moment.
I was getting the idea that it wasn’t the shower that was really waking me up, but it was the Lord. I figured now that I’m awake, I’ll spend some time sitting in His word: something He’d probably want me to do during this time. I asked Him while I was in the shower what He wanted me to read in the Bible that night.
Usually when I do this, I think I hear correctly from Him, then I try turning to a chapter in the Bible that doesn’t even exist. I’m going to be honest when I say that asking the Lord for scripture doesn’t often workout well for me.
However, this time it did. I opened up my Bible and read all of Romans 8. It was the last two verses of the chapter that stuck out to me. Romans 8:38-39 read, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)
While I was reading this, my sweet momma from back in Georgia sent me a text reading “Isn’t the love of Jesus like the love from a dog?” I thought she was crazy, but I read on— “They know exactly who you are and love you profusely anyway. When you’re gone for a long time and you come home they welcome you home like you’re best thing that’s ever walked through the front door. They are always right by your side.”
Did you catch that? If you didn’t, go back and read that ish again.
My mom sent me a text completely out of the blue literally restating the exact verses I had read seconds ago in Romans 8.
My mom wrote that text and sent it to me thinking “I’m sending this to my daughter who is a missionary. She spends time reading the word every day. She already knows this. I don’t even really have to remind her of it.” Yet, little did my mom know that that night was the first time in almost two weeks I had sat alone with the Lord.
That night the Lord reminded me that nothing will separate me from His love. Two weeks of not reading the Bible is not enough for Him to stop loving me. Nineteen years of not reading the Bible is not enough for Him to stop loving Him. Being complacent in my relationship with Him is still not enough. Heck, if I started to sprint in the opposite direction of Him, it would not be enough for Him to stop loving me.
Nothing will ever be enough for God to stop loving you.
Let that sink in.
When you have failed, He still calls you His beloved. When you fail again, you are still His precious child. Wether you are pursuing a relationship with Him or not, He is constantly pursuing one with you.
So… all said, I will leave you with this— what in your life do you think is holding you back from experiencing the full love of God? Because I guarantee you there isn’t anything you haven’t already done that He hasn’t already seen or heard of.
