While I was on the World Race, I noticed that people were a little obsessed with the number “11”. 11 Countries. 11 months. 11 pictures. 11 best quotes of the race. The top 11 things I saw. 11 different ways to describe praying all at once. 11 favorite foods. And on and on we went. And right before I got off the Race, I wrote a blog about 11 crazy things I saw on the Race. In that post, I promised a deeper blog that would wrap up my Race and hopefully share a little wisdom from my experiences on the Race. So here it is, 11 things I learned on the Race:
- As the mathematician/philosopher Blaise Paschal said it, “All men seek happiness, even those who hang themselves.” Now, I kind of knew this before the Race, that the ultimate goal of every human being is to be satisfied and happy, but it never sunk in until I went around the world and saw it first hand. And I found that this is true for EVERY single human being, whether they realize it or not. Our ultimate desire and the motive of our every action is to be happy. From the Buddhist monks in Thailand to the hippies we met in Hampi, and from the Hindu priest below the Himalayas in Nepal to the atheist human rights activist in Laos, all of them, no matter what god they believed in or didn’t, acknowledged that the thing that they sought most was happiness. Now, this may not seem like a huge revelation, but once we understand this desire of the human heart, it opens us up to a whole new view of God, which leads us to our next point.
- God desires our Happiness. John Piper makes this point excellently in his breakdown of what he calls “Christian Hedonism”. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied (happy) in Him.” The ultimate goal of the universe is to glorify God, but the way we glorify Him is by being happy in Him. This does wonders for the bored person who thinks God is just a grandfather in the sky who punishes you when you do wrong. And it does wonders for the burned out missionary like I was who know that God is redeeming the world but don’t think He cares about their current suffering or circumstances or state of mind. I “knew” in my head before the Race that I could be happy in God despite all outward circumstances, but it wasn’t until I preached on joy in the Philippines to an impoverished village that had true joy in the Lord, or served with an overworked pastor in Africa who only cared about glorifying the Lord and BEING with Him that I finally realized that God DOES care about our happiness. In fact, He commands that we “rejoice in the Lord, ALWAYS”. This doesn’t mean there won’t be pain, there was plenty on the Race, but leaning on Jesus, we need to learn how to live out Paul’s “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”
- Our hearts were made for God, and NOTHING else will satisfy. St. Augustine put it this way- “You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” I learned this the hard way on the Race. I had the privilege of seeing 3 wonders of the world in person, went to famous historical sites, experienced different cultures, saw healings, ate unique foods, saw some of the most beautiful places in the world, had the best friends, got a lot of attention wherever I went, and on and on I could go. But you know what I realized after marveling at Victoria Falls and still not having joy? My heart was made for God, and no matter how great these things are, they weren’t made to satisfy me and therefore will not. And I met backpacker after backpacker and tourist after tourist that were realizing the same thing. Why do you think people go “soul searching”? Because no matter how fun or “good” there life is, they aren’t satisfied. And if you aren’t Christian, you’re desperate to find it. I met people all over the world who were trying to find it in adventure seeking, sex, traveling, drugs, partying, whatever. And though they definitely enjoyed those things, deep down every single one would tell you that they know there is more. As Christians, we’ve found it, we just need to stop being busy bodies and rest in Jesus.
- Every single one of us has a villain inside of us, and deep down inside we are bad people, and hurting, broken people. I actually started discovering this before the Race while I was in B.J. Thompson’s men’s group, and he would tell us that there was a villain inside all of us that needs Jesus, that needs redemption. Even the nicest, sweetest, most peaceful person you know has anger and rebellion inside of them that they may be suppressing (or you may be suppressing), but it’s there and will eventually come up. “We have all turned away, and together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one.” This became so real to me on the Race the first week when we did our “secrets night”, when everyone told stories of sin and brokenness in our lives that you would never guess by looking at us and probably wouldn’t think we were missionaries if you knew. And it became even more evident when we were together 24/7 doing life and ministry together. I’ve heard marriage exposes your selfishness, try living and sharing everything with 6 other people for months on end with no break. That’ll expose your flaws real fast, and it did me and everyone else around me.
- We (you, me and the world) desperately need Jesus to heal our brokenness. We realized this after we realized that we were all broken and had a villain inside of us. None of us is perfect, and we all have scars and sins that we can’t seem to shake. But thankfully, we don’t have to be perfect because Jesus was/is and He covers us with His grace. There is NO condemnation in Christ Jesus. Jesus knows that I get angry, He knows that I lust, He knows that I am prideful and selfish, and it doesn’t intimidate Him one bit. The only thing He wants from me is to run to Him and trust Him to pay for my sin. If I didn’t sin or could pay for it on my own, I wouldn’t need Jesus. But the reality I learned after being with the same people month after month is that we are all jacked up and desperately need Jesus.
- We as a corporate body of believers MUST learn how to own our brokenness and extend grace to others. As I just said, the reality is that we are all broken and hurting, in one way or another. The type of Christianity that I was familiar with before the Race looked down on alcoholics and slandered gays, condemned adulterous people and people who cussed, and put on a happy face coming in to church even though we were arguing with our spouse on the way in. Instead of being honest and leaning on our brothers and sisters, saying “ I need help because I’m addicted to prescription meds” or “I need help because I struggle with porn” or “My marriage is falling apart, can you pray for me?”, we instead come into church acting like everything is fine, because we don’t understand grace and we are too prideful to show weakness or need. But that is how God wants us to come, and that’s what the Body of Christ is for!! He wants us to come to Him with our troubles and our problems, not with our own band aids on. And we as the Body of Christ have got to stop condemning the hurting people that come to us. Because you know what? You’ve got your own crap, as do I, and me and you both need Jesus just the same. Until the church becomes a safe place to confess sin and bring burdens, we will NEVER see real growth and change. This DOES NOT mean the church will become a place where open and unrepentant sin abounds, as I know some people think. Rather, the church will become a place where broken and hurting people are healed because they have a family willing to extend them grace and walk through the cold weather WITH them, pointing them to Jesus, the only one who truly changes. I saw this first hand on the Race as some of my best friends and myself walked out of bondage and into freedom on issues such as anger, alcoholism, homosexuality, lust, and on the list goes. Because they had people around them that rallied to them to help them in their struggles. (Lecrae wrote a song that speaks into this well, it’s called “Church Clothes”. Check it)
- God is living and active in the world This may seem cliché, but I know for a fact that more often than not, we don’t believe it, because we definitely don’t live like it. But I’ve seen God heal, I’ve seen Him answer prayers, provide when it seemed impossible, let the Holy Spirit move and work through preaching and prophecy, and so much more. The Kingdom IS advancing around the world, and where you find people seeking to bring it in and LISTENING to God, that’s where you see all this movement. You wanna see God move? Step out on faith, pray specific things, look like a fool because you prayed for someone to get healed, or because you trashed a sermon you prepared and went up to preach with nothing because the Holy Spirit told you to. Listen for God, walk with Jesus, and you will see Him move.
- Missionaries aren’t super humans and NEED the church. This is definitely not meant to be condemning, so please don’t take it that way. But I have met so many missionaries that are burned out and hurting because their ministry is 24/7 and they are constantly pouring out with no one to pour back into them. And they have hardly any accountability or growth a lot of times because they don’t have a solid church community PRESENT with them. But missionaries are human just like you and I. I’m convinced this is a huge reason that missionaries and pastors fail in big ways morally sometimes, because there is so much pressure on them to be perfect and yet no one to hold them accountable or to walk with them. Being a missionary can be a lonely life. They need so much more than money. They need people from their home churches who will take responsibility for constantly praying for them, for calling or emailing to see how they are doing on a regular basis, to send them care packages, or to go and visit them and pour into their lives and point them to Jesus. Desperately need this for missionaries on the field I feel like.
- Learning someone’s language or culture is an easy way to show you care. I found that whenever you even put an effort into doing these things, it showed the locals that you cared about them and where they are from, and opened them up to being loved on by you and you pointing them to Jesus. It shows that you have respect for who they are as a person and you are genuinely interested in their lives. And it’s not awkward or hard, although you may look foolish sometimes. But hey, it’s not about you. Be ok with looking foolish.
- Be Present. STOP. Before you read the rest of this paragraph, go to google, type in “Propaganda, Be Present Catalyst” and listen to Propaganda’s poem “Be present”. This is another thing I learned the hard way on the Race and continue to struggle with. Often times we found ourselves being too busy focusing on the next country to enjoy and pour in where we were at the time. Or longing for our one day off so much that I miss the child in front of me who just wants to play. Or thinking back to how awesome man month was that I forget that I have a new team that I can enjoy just as much and pour into. The grass is always greener. That country is not as cool as you thought it was going to be and that off day doesn’t satisfy you, because you’ll probably spend those days longing for something else. Instead, be present. Enjoy where you are and the people you are with without getting stuck in your head. Be content and get all of what God has for you out of that moment, because if you keep looking ahead, you’ll be in an eternal cycle of missing things.
- Perception is everything. I learned this while talking to my friend Mike about C&C’s people would turn into him. He never told me people’s business, but what he did tell me was how crazy it was seeing different people on the same team’s COMPLETELY DIFFERENT perception of the same events. Attitude is everything, and it can mean the difference between you enjoying where you are and learning to make the best of your circumstances, or letting your circumstances get the best of you. Things go wrong, life is hard. You can’t control that. What you can control is your attitude. An example from the Race is our broken down bus at the Honduras/Nicaragua border. We were there for 12 hours, and some took the opportunity to mope and complain. Others of us took the opportunity to work on our “catching food in our mouth” skills and had a blast (I caught a grape bounced off a moving semi truck, but I don’t wanna brag).
So yeah. That turned out longer than I expected, but those are 11 of the biggest things I learned on the Race. I obviously still have a lot to learn in these areas and more, and that process didn’t end with the Race.
Much love,
Chambeezy
