Over and over on the Race, I’ve been amazed at human resiliency. We are capable of withstanding so much, surviving against all odds. From the remote mountains of Nepal, to the slums of Jeffrey’s Bay, humans are capable of existing with far less, in far worse conditions than I thought possible. Each month, I have seen people living in situations that I would have deemed unsurvivable. What I didn’t realize was that I was becoming immune to it. Expecting it. Done caring about it. Because it was normal.
Enter the Parent Vision Trip. It was kind of funny to see the parents enter into World Race life. We lead weird lives, us Racers. It’s true. On a scale ranking all of humanity, we’re definitely more towards one end of the spectrum than the other. I’ll let you decide which.
But in seeing the parents experience our life, it also gave me a kick in the pants. To hear them talk about the living conditions, and the injustice of it all, was almost shocking to me. I remember wondering why they were so upset about it, because I just expected to see those things when I entered into people’s homes. It no longer got me fired up, wanting to make a difference. And that’s just sad.
Seeing the world through new eyes was shocking for me. It was like going back to Month One in Nepal, and meeting myself all over again. And honestly, I wish that you could keep the excitement, and passion, and energy of the first two months of the Race for all 11 months. Because I sure was upset about the injustice of it all in Nepal, but somewhere over the course of 9 months I lost that. I became okay with it.
And through this, I’ve realized we should never, ever, ever be okay with another human being suffering in ways that I’ve seen. We should never, ever, ever be okay with hunger, or not having adequate clothing, or living in perilous houses, or abusive situations. Because the only difference between us and them is the fact we were lucky enough to not be born into it. It could so easily be me living in the slums of India, and I would want someone in my position, with my resources, to do something about it.
We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. And I have neighbors all over the world now. And I don’t want to become immune to the injustice in the world. I don’t want to expect hardship and pain and just accept it as the way life is. There is so much more in store for each and every person on this earth. I know that the Lord has so much more goodness in store for each person than what we are living. And the only thing in the way of that is ourselves. Our sinful beings, becoming immune to injustice, turning a blind eye, and accepting things as fact, when in reality we have the power to make a difference.
So pray for me. Pray that my heart would break each and every day for the people I meet. Pray that I would seek out making a difference. Pray that I would see people through God’s eyes, seeing their worth and beauty, rather than their situation. And I’ll do the same for you.
