This is hard for me to admit because this has gone on for awhile and I am now just realizing it.
After my first month on the Race I learned the coined World Race saying “Be interruptible for Jesus.” I loved it! And I wanted to apply it to my daily life so it wouldn’t be a World Race thing but a lifestyle.
Now, it is month ten of my eleven month journey around the world, and I know I have a lot of learning and growing to do to truly be interruptible for Jesus. God revealed this to me this morning on my off day.
I had three things that I wanted to get done today: wash my clothes, go on a run, and figure out the schedule for the week. As I was preparing to do laundry, collecting my clothes that I wore for the entire week, searching for the team detergent, and figuring out whether to use the Scrubba or an ordinary bucket, I heard a teammate say, “Is the water running now?” My ears were on fire because I just wanted to attempt to wash my filthy clothes.
I did check, there was a good stream coming out of the faucet. Phew, I could still do what I wanted to do!
As I got everything situated, I was humbled. I was humbled by the lady who has been serving my team this weekend. She’s cooked breakfast and dinner for us and she cleans the entire hospital floor that we are living in. Just like everyone of us, she has a busy schedule, but she helped me scrub my dirty clothes in the bucket. With little English, she taught me how to do laundry well.
We scrubbed, we laughed, and we hugged!
Once my clothes were washed and hung, I got ready for my run since I wanted to go on a run today. As I was filling up my water bottle and giving thanks to God for the wonderful lady who helped me, God gently reminded me by saying, “She was interruptible for Me.”
That was when I noticed my selfishness with all the “I want” statements that I’d been saying in my head. After God’s grace filled conviction, I put aside my wants and desires to be interruptible for Him. I heard the woman starting the process of cleaning the kitchen and dishes. I was so happy to put my run on hold, to help clean. She said so many “thank you”s, and so did I. I wish I could explain to her what God taught me through her selflessness. I hope she felt my appreciation when I gave her hugs.
I learned another important lesson today. And my time on the Race is coming to a fast finish line, but I want to persevere. I want to stop being selfish about my off days. I want to be interruptible for Jesus until my last day on the Race and my last day on Earth.
