In one year, I will have just returned home from this wild and crazy adventure known as the World Race.
Forgive me if this sentence is difficult to read, but it is the best summation of my thoughts:
I do not know if I am more afraid of:
….coming home and never again being able to live the life I love here now….
OR
…of coming home and going back to living the life I love here now.
Did ANYONE follow that?
I have heard repeatedly since I decided to go on the WR how much this trip is going to change me. To the point that some people, especially WR alumni, say you will be nearly unrecongizably changed…at least to those closest to you.
Funnily enough, I think that this statement perplexes me more than anyone. I certainly hope to be noticably more…what?….
Cultured? Well, sure. I am thrilled and excited at the opportunity to learn about other cultures. Tasting new foods, developing more well-rounded taste in music, seeing historical sights and landscapes, learning new languages and customs….thats all good and well and fun and I am incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to do it.
But it is really completely beside the point, to be frank. Tons of people have traveled and "experienced other cultures". And most of them are impacted by what they see and experience in some way. But I do not think that such travels necessarily make someone unrecognizable from who they were before they left.
Informed? I am bound to come home from this trip with at least a vague understanding of various world politics and happenings that I currently know nothing about. But who really cares how much I know about what is going on in the world if I am not willing to do anything towards helping things I support and fighting things that infuriate me?
Adventurous? Darn-tootin. If eating scorpions, jumping off of bridges, white water rafting with crocodiles, leading worship and preaching in front of 300 people on a moments notice, and roasting marshmallows over an active volcano won't make a person adventurous, I don't know what will.
And I think that life is short and is to be embraced: God created all of these things and desires for us to enjoy His numerous blessings. In fact, I think He gets a real kick out of sitting back and laughing at the looks on our faces when we eat grubs for the first time.
But when I stand before God one day and see my life laid out before me, He isn't going to notice or care about any of those things.
He isn't going to ask me how well-traveled I was, what sort of crazy adventures I had, how many languages I spoke, what sort of food or music I preferred, or how many world events I could speak knowledgably on.
I may be surprised to find that He is quite disinterested in how many miles from home I went do missions work, how many theologians I could quote, how many hymns I knew, or what "type" of Christian (too radical or too inhibited?) other people would say I was.
I am fairly convinced that all He is going to care about or ask me is this:
"How much did you show LOVE to Me and to My children? And did you help lead them into My TRUTH and My KINGDOM?"
For me, just about any and every aspect of what it means to be a Christ-follower can be wrapped up in that question. Life isn't about counting sins or good works; it is about sharing the love and grace of CHRIST, however many different ways that may manifest.
And so, the end I come to is this: I want to be back in the States this time next year capable of showering people with love in a way that is so huge that it is unrecongizable from how I do it now. Whether it's my use of time, money, energy, or focus, I want the love that can only come from humbly serving Christ to emanate from my every pore.
That way, when I come home next year, maybe people will think there is something different about me, something good and light and desirable, and they will wonder what that is, exactly….and I will have the perfect opportunity (and will certainly have had plenty of practice) to say, well let me tell you about this guy Jesus….you may have heard of Him…
This is a beautiful picture taken by another racer during their time spent showing love to orphans in Mozambique. View the photographers awesome blog here: http://bekafritz.theworldrace.org/
