I love completing goals. It does not matter how small or large, check that box. I also enjoy seeing how efficient I can be, it’s like a game to me. How much can I get done in a certain amount of time? Phrases like, “Focus is ability to inhibit all other distractions” and “Jack of all trades, master of none,” and “have doves eyes,” help me stay focused to complete my goals.
However, at times I can be very task oriented and less people oriented.
At training camp for World Race, I did not know there would be hot water to make coffee, and I LOVE COFFEE. Like, I drink 3 cups of French Press coffee pretty much every morning.
One evening at training camp, my team and I had some time to go talk to people, make a music video, get dinner, and whatever else we decided. So I was like this is my time to get coffee!!! Beggars can’t be choosers, and while I love French Press coffee and being a coffee snob, I’ll really drink whatever.
My team and I find a Publix, and all I am thinking and repeatedly chanting in my head is “instant coffee.” After walking in Publix, I look around and half of my team is no longer with me. I look back, and the other half of my team is in foyer talking to a woman with a leg brace on. So I go join the conversation and find out this woman is going to physical therapy for her knee and just got out of an abusive relationship. My team ends up praying for the woman, and the woman was very thankful.
Now, I am back on my mission to get instant coffee. I resume repeatedly chanting in my head “instant coffee.”
My team and I get to the coffee isle, and I am focused on which instant coffee I want to choose. I don’t even see the couple that just walked past us in the isle, because I am so focused on coffee. The couple stops and asks us what we are doing. (It may have looked a little odd to them to see six young adults just hanging out in the grocery store lol.) So we tell them about World Race and how we are in the area for Training Camp. Come to find out, they are opening a church in the area and the first service was that following Sunday. My teammate, Shiloh, asks if we can pray for them, and they were glad for us to. So we pray for the couple and their church in the middle of the Publix coffee isle.
Those two encounters in Publix were so fun. I now have a cool memory of getting to be a blessing to others. Had I been alone, not in community or around others that push me out of my own little world, that grocery store stop would have been a mundane grocery store stop for me.
…And in the end I got my instant coffee. The ultimate end goal was accomplished even though it was delayed a little bit. Even though it is out of my comfort zone to hold my goals more loosely, I am finding it is more worth it to be more people oriented than goal oriented.
We also filmed some of our music video too while in Publix.
Here is my team’s music video. All cred and editing to my teammate, Stella Udeozor. Song is Not with Haste by Mumford and Sons. Enjoy!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N7xlK2Naqx6UUkG20iWA7u89EYgxw7du/view
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Thank you again to all of my supporters, without you this would not be possible.
God Bless,
Amanda
