I’ve been trying to figure out a way to explain what the World Race has been for me and there’s one particular word that has resounded with me over the past few months as I’ve tried to put myself and the Race into perspective. The word “kavod.” I had never heard of this word before I read the book “What We Talk About When We Talk About God” by Rob Bell in August. I know a lot of you reading this might not like Rob Bell or his books, but they always make me think and I appreciate that. I always finish them with more questions than answers and it makes me question my beliefs and explain to myself why I believe what I believe, but all of that is beside the point.
The word “kavod” is Hebrew and means “an awareness of important things.” Its original purpose was to be used as a business term referring to the heaviness of something, but over time, the word began to take on a more abstract meaning that referred to the importance or significance of something. In his book, Bell says this:
“Kavod is serious—not in an overbearing, stilted kind of way, but in a sacred, hold kind of way. The word is often used in the Scriptures to refer to God’s glory—that which happens when the monotony is pierced, the boredom hijacked, the despair overpowered by your sense that something else is going on, just below the surface, something that’s bigger and wider and deeper and more powerful than anything you could begin to imagine. Something that reminds you of your smallness, frailty, and impermanence. It’s that gut-level awareness you’re seized by that tells you, ‘Pay attention because this matters.’”
Kavod is the Race in a nutshell.
The Race is the epitome of having “the monotony pierced, the boredom hijacked” and there are very few moments where you are unaware that something bigger and more powerful than you could ever imagine is going on just below the surface. It would be impossible for me to explain how many times my teammates and I have looked at each other this year and said, “I can’t believe we’re doing this. I can’t believe I’m here right now.” The thing that we’ve all come to realize though, is that even though we are constantly amazed at where God has taken us, He hasn’t taken us anywhere without a purpose. He’s always there, putting something into the works, just below the surface.
I can’t tell you how many times on the Race I have looked around me and understood my smallness. Understood that my part in this world is small and seemingly insignificant to the untrained eye, but as I began to understand my smallness from the world’s perspective, I also began to understand that I matter. That the things I do matter and the things that people all over the world do actually matter in the grand scheme of things, no matter how small they seem. They could be as small as smiling at a stranger to brighten their day or helping a child eat their small meal on the ground or teaching a teenager how to play the piano. These things matter.
The Race has been one of, if not the most, significant experiences in my life. It’s important. It’s important in a heavy way, which is also why the word kavod fits perfectly for this season of my life. The things that my team and I have seen this year and experiences we’ve had weigh heavy on me in different ways. They’re heavy in the normal ways that you would think of, such as seeing poverty and injustices, but also in unexpected ways like wondering if what we did really made a positive difference.
After reading “What We Talk About When We Talk About God,” I had to take inventory of my beliefs just like I do every time I read anything by Rob Bell. This time, it helped me come to the conclusion that I follow a God who is bigger and wider and deeper and more powerful than I could ever fathom and a God who intermittently reminds me of my smallness to reveal his bigness—his glory.
Thank you for following me on my journey to discover God’s glory this year and I could not be more excited to see where it takes me next.
