As I sit in my hotel room at Launch (the few days we’ve had in Atlanta before we leave the United States for our first stop, Côte d’Ivoire in west Africa) I’m trying my hardest to soak in all that I have experienced recently and prepare for all that I am sure to experience in the months ahead.
In the past several days, I have felt an overflowing gratefulness to my family and friends around me for sending me off with a perfect surprise party and an unbelievable amount of letters and cards.
I have heard and read so many kind words, and I am also saving many of them to read in the days ahead of me when times are hard or joyful or I just miss all the people I love. THANK YOU so, so much to those who have written to me, as I really cannot stress enough how to me, “gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” (Proverbs 16:24)
I watched one of my favorite movies, The Princess Diaries, last week with my mom, and this movie also demonstrates the power of words, especially when those words are coming from someone who you respect so dearly.
Mia’s father, who she barely knew and who passed away, writes her a letter that inspires her to make one of the biggest decisions of her life. In it he says,
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. From now on you’ll be traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be. The key is to allow yourself to make the journey.”
I claim these words for my life and take them to heart, as I have with quite a bit of The Princess Diaries (minus the whole becoming a princess thing). This journey that lies ahead of me is one that could cause me to fear, but my great God keeps whispering courage into my soul, reminding me of the perfect love that casts out fear and of the Kingdom work that is so much more important than fear.
Another ridiculously inspirational part of the movie is Mia’s speech in which she claims her responsibility as Princess of Genovia. I can still vividly remember the impact these words had on me when I watched this movie for the first time in a theater 15 years ago.
“But I’m not so afraid anymore. See, my father helped me. Earlier this evening, I had every intention of giving up my claim to the throne. And my mother helped me, by telling me it was ok, and by supporting me like she has for my entire life. Would I feel relieved, or would I feel sad?
And then I realized how many stupid times a day I use the word ‘I.’ And probably all I ever do is think about myself. And how lame is that when there’s like seven billion other people out there on the planet, and… sorry, I’m going too fast. But then I thought, if I cared about the other seven billion out there, instead of just me, that’s probably a much better use of my time.
See, if i were Princess of Genovia, then my thoughts and the thoughts of people smarter than me would be much better heard, and just maybe those thoughts could be turned into actions. So this morning when I woke up, I was Mia Thermopolis. But now I choose to be forevermore, Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi, Princess of Genovia.”
As I prepare to leave on this life-changing trip, some of these words carry a different weight, and some of them stay the same. I still am constantly aware of “how many stupid times a day I use the word ‘I'”. Last night, I felt an overwhelming desire that Jesus would always and only be seen during these months of meeting new people and doing ministry, rather than trying and working for me to be seen and heard like is my tendency. This selflessness will be so crucial for my journey, and I pray that I can embody it. There are over seven billion other people out there, and I am constantly in awe of the fact that our God knows every single one of them intimately and created them with a purpose in mind. I pray that my time would indeed be used in these 11 months ahead to see these people in the way that our merciful and just God sees them.
In another way, as I embark on this adventure, I do know that “my thoughts and the thoughts of people smarter than me” will be heard, and even these thoughts can be turned into actions. I am in awe of the relationships that I have been able to have in life, and the wisdom and knowledge from people around me that I get to absorb like a sponge day in and day out. I pray that the Spirit would cause me to recall these wise and beautiful thoughts, such as many in the letters that so many of you sent me, so that I might be able to share them with the people I encounter each day on the Race. And now, I am surrounded by a Squad of 50 who carry wisdom and grace and light, and their thoughts and actions will proclaim Jesus, too.
I would say I don’t know how I got so lucky to be where I am, but thanks be to God, I do know! God is faithful, Jesus has saved me, the Spirit sanctifies me, and each and every one of my family, friends, and supporters have made me who I am and given me opportunity after opportunity to be more like our Savior.
I can’t wait to share what I learn and experience with you, and I can only hope my words, or better yet, the words of the Lord through me, might be just as refreshing and restoring to those who hear them and read them.
