Last July, H-squad boarded a plane and left behind all the things we couldn’t fit into our 60-liter packs. What we did bring was big plans about what we were going to do. We were going to walk in grace with our teammates and let our awesomeness change the nations and peoples we encountered. (Having won squad wars, our awesomeness rating was pretty high).
When people asked what are plans were, our answer was simple: we planned to take this incredible kingdom that people think is beyond their sight, a place so distant they couldn’t touch it, and we were going to bring it to them. It was going to be real. It was going to be tangible.
When we got to Ireland, Team Aletheia, Kingdom Come, and Doulos were placed in Greystones with a ministry that challenged every one of us. There were days we cried, days we were angry, days we were over it…and it was incredible.
We all had the opportunity that month to ask ourselves the question people constantly asked us: what are you doing?
Walking home one day, a few of us met Allen. Allen had cerebral palsy, which put him in a wheelchair. He couldn’t walk or talk, but he had a grid board with him that was covered in words. Allen could communicate by pointing from word to word, forming sentences.
We talked with Allen for a while, and then he asked what we were doing, so we gave our World Race answer. Then we asked him a question. His answer came slowly as he pointed to one word at a time:
Not. Interesting. In. God. Sorry. Goodbye.
Allen wheeled himself in the opposite direction. He didn’t want to talk anymore. He was done with us.
When you sign up for the race, it comes with some pretty big ideas. You don’t expect to go through this living small. You want big. You crave big. And you know there is a world out there that doesn’t have a clue how close it all is to them…you can bring that to them.
But when you encounter people like Allen, you realize that most of the world knows, they’re just not interested. That’s when the race gets hard.
It turns out that all your awesomeness that was going to change the world…most people aren’t interested in it. And then you feel like it’s a job. You aren’t saving the world, and you lose that excitement you brought with you on the race.
So, why would you go on the race?
Simple. You do drip awesomeness. Once you look past the fact that people might not be interested in you, you find an invitation. An invitation to bring the kingdom in a different way. An invitation to forget all the “correct” answers and just live life. An invitation to say that you haven’t always been interested in it either. Being on the race isn’t about formulas or typed-out answers. It’s about being raw with people that don’t find you as awesome as you feel.
Go on the race. Be awesome. It’s worth it.
