Six years ago…woof.
Six years ago I was in Malawi, growing out my body hair, dreading my crown of glory (the hair on my head), and trying to keep my two-month-old nose piercing clean…I’m sure I’ve lost MOST of you with the visuals. And for that, I apologize, but I don’t think I can (or should) apologize for the changes that happened on the Race, and the changes that have continued to occur because of the experiences in Malawi, the 10 other countries all over the world, and those endless and unforgettable travel days.
Like everyone else, I was looking for something more.
I was graduating from university and no longer wanted to do the thing I’d started going to school for, and what better way to figure out what God is calling me to next than to take a tour of the world?!
Yeah, God doesn’t answer prayers QUITE like that, at least not for me. It was not on a sky-writer, I didn’t know what the “next steps” were, but I did know that God was faithful. I do know that God is faithful. He is faithful in the little things, and so much more so in the big things.
Things that have changed:
Patience – I’m in a culture of immediate gratification, but I serve a God for whom a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day…God is not working for me on MY time schedule, I am in his time table and learning to be patient with that (p.s. I am still reallllllllly bad at it).
Obedience – it’s been 5 years since I got home, and it has been an interesting journey, but I am doing something I love, and God continues to answer prayers (with yes and no…) but walking with him, though not easy, is infinitely more fulfilling than drifting along without him. Trust in God’s faithfulness and hope in the unseen.
I encountered intentional community on the Race, and I bucked against it the whole time…who wants to be so vulnerable with strangers…but it started a desire for something more in my friendships and relationships with others. And despite times of disconnectedness and isolation (self-induced most of the time), I know now that I am called to a body of believers, not a solo-mission.
The World Race changed more than the amount of stamps in my passport, or the random assortment of coins in my wallet, it changed the way I pray, it changed the way I watch the news, and it changed the way I choose to interact with others. God used the World Race to draw me closer to him, and he uses each experience since then to draw me closer still. I am forever changed by the people I met, by the tears I cried, and by the ways I was able to participate, even for a moment, in the lives of other Christians all over the world.
