People who come back from the World Race CHANGE. They become new people. It’s just a thing. I mean, how can you travel to so many different countries and experience so many different cultures and NOT change? How can you be living in third-world countries and conditions for 9 months and NOT come away a different person?
Believe it or not, it’s really easy to be on the World Race and not change.
I’m realizing that it’s really easy to ignore change. It’s simple to go through the motions of everyday life and continue to follow the same patterns as I did in the States.
In the Dominican, I wake up every morning, wash my face, brush my teeth, go to devotional, eat breakfast, do morning ministry, have free time, go to lunch, go to afternoon ministry, have free time until dinner, shower, eat dinner, have team time/nighttime devotional, have free time until 10:00, then go to bed.
Sure, it’s different than my life in America. But it’s pretty consistent. It’s a routine that I’ve already adjusted to. And maybe it has a lot to do with where we are in the Dominican. Maybe it’s because we have Wifi. Maybe it’s because we still have access to normal things – like movies, running water, a bedroom, etc. Maybe it’s because it’s my first month and hasn’t really hit me that I’m ACTUALLY on the World Race. Maybe it’s because we don’t really leave our ministry site (Hope Mountain) terribly often. Maybe it’s because these past few days have been a flurry because of the hurricane.
I’m not sure why it feels so normal. But I know now that change doesn’t just come out of the blue. It’s something that I have to intentionally choose.
It would be so easy for me to choose to stay the same for the next 9 months. I could choose to lose myself in business. I could choose to task-orient myself when I do ministry. I could choose to put on a facade every day so that people won’t be able to know the real me. I could choose to put my faith into an air-tight container that is void of anything other than religion. I could choose to textbook-read Scripture and receive absolutely nothing from it. I could choose to ignore the Lord and what He wants to do in my heart this year.
BUT.
I could also choose to allow the Lord to transform me this year. I could choose to abide in the Lord and seek him, allowing change to occur naturally. I could choose to pour my heart out and serve and love people well. I could choose my team and my community rather than pushing them away. I can choose to abide in the Lord and grow in intimacy with Him.
It’s all a big, fat choice.
During team time last night, I felt the Lord calling me into so many things this year. One thing I think He’s calling me into is deeper intimacy with Him. He wants more for me. But I have to CHOOSE Him. I have to. He can’t force me to change, I have to choose to draw near.
I can either CHOOSE to allow the Lord to change me – I can choose to abide in Him – or I can choose to continue living in ignorance. However, I still have to deal with the repercussions of what that choice brings: Not choosing change will lead to complacency and stagnation, but choosing it will lead to growth (and a million other things along with that).
But I also can’t have my main focus be change… my main focus HAS TO be Jesus. Otherwise everything I do is worthless. If I’m not focused on the Lord, I’ll miserably fail. I have to seek the Lord and allow change to stem out of that relationship.
This past week, I’ve started to realize that my default setting – the mindset that I fall back on when I’m scared/uncomfortable – is NOT the Lord. When I’m uncomfortable, or struggling, or frustrated, I go to what’s comfortable. I desire the comfort of my home and the consistency and safety that it brought. I desire the quiet sanctuary that my room was for me (PSA: I have lost all hope for alone time on the Race). Anyways, my default isn’t a desire for the Lord. Why? Why don’t I automatically run to Jesus? I know that He has everything that I’m yearning for.
But I still run to comfort and normalcy rather than intimacy.
A wise person once told me (“once” as in a few days ago) that, “no good thing comes from inaction and comfort, but only through sacrifice and good stewardship of what you’ve been afforded by HIS grace.”
That affected me. You see, the World Race is simply a tool. It’s just a 9 month long missions trip. The way people CHANGE from going on the World Race is through Jesus and Jesus alone. The World Race doesn’t change people… Jesus does. But they have to choose to be changed; it doesn’t just happen.
I have a choice – we all have a choice actually – to either press into deeper intimacy with the Lord or go through the motions of everyday life. Nothing – absolutely NOTHING – can come from inaction and comfort. We have to push ourselves (or be pushed) out of our comfort zones in order to grow and change.
I have to start being honest and vulnerable and real with the Lord. I have to start telling Him about EVERYTHING, not just the good things. He doesn’t desire for me to live with emptiness anymore; He wants to be the one that fills the voids in my heart. I have to choose to find time and space to breathe and be in sanctuary with Jesus. I have to choose to open up and let the Lord into my everyday life and thoughts and emotions. He’s calling me into deeper intimacy with Him, but I have to choose to say yes and take tangible steps towards that.
I want to grow. I want to live higher way than I have been living in the past. So that’s what I’m going to choose.
I’m going to choose to lean into all that the Lord has for me this year.
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3)
He’s calling us all into a deeper intimacy with Him. He’s calling us to be reliant upon him. The question is: will you say yes? Don’t go on your Race of life stuck in a cycle of ignorance and mindless routines. You have been called to something so much higher and greater than that. Choose it.
-Lyss
