I’m sitting up, unable to sleep. I’m now staring at a screen in the dark while my teammates sleep as I unpack my day and realize that what I first considered ordinary is actually extraordinary. I realized I have a “new normal” and I kind of like it.
These days I look forward to sleeping because the Lord has been speaking to me through really vivid dreams that are drenched in metaphor and meaning. So now I also look forward to waking up and unraveling them. It’s great because my only responsibility is to go to bed and if I remember my dream, to write it down.
I try to work out as much as possible, sometimes its an Insanity workout, sometimes a run but it’s usually interrupted by 12 African children trying to mimic me or stand directly in front of my computer screen or chasing me down the road. Then it’s a quick douse with a cold bucket of water to rinse off the dust and the stink. After that, it’s usually home visits which means hiking up and down rocky hills, it’s nearly rock scrambling at some points, but today I went to the hospital because I’ve been having tummy troubles. This was a relatively easy and humorous process that revealed that I have high acidity in my stomach and a swollen appendix. No big deal. Got some meds, and set up a two day safari for next week, and hung out by Lake Victoria before walking about two miles to a Tanzanian church crusade. This is a regional event that happens only once a year. It’s been happening every evening this week. But today, I witnessed a blind person give testimony to being able to see clearly and saw a lame man with bandages on his feet carried to the stage and start walking. My team came home to a house with no electricity and had a delicious dinner of Chapati and beans and potatoes by lantern, candlelight and headlamps.
This is my life. I actually thought to myself, Man, I didn’t do much today. And to some of you readers, it may not actually seem like I did much of anything. Daily life can easily get monotonous on the Race. Traveling all the time, getting readjusted and re-adjusted makes your lifestyle one of constant transitions so much so that it becomes the norm and with anything that starts to become normal, things begin to lose their novelty and luster.
I had to have a mental shake today. This is not the norm for the rest of the world. I didn’t dream very much before the Race. Now I’m having CRAZY dreams that have relevant meaning for my life and the lives around me. I won’t have dirty, half-clothed children chasing me when I run in the mornings or try to touch my hair and skin while doing push-ups and planks. When I go to the doctor or a hospital, I won’t have 5 strangers just walk in the room to talk to the doctor during my appointment. How often will I do bucket list things once I’m home like an African Safari? And then here comes a big question: WIll I continue to see people physically and emotionally healed before my very eyes? WIll I continue to look for the supernatural? WIll it continue to be a part of my new normal in 45 days?
To a degree, I’ve become desensitized to the layer of dirt that I rinse off of myself because it’s now normal. I’ve become de-sensitized to the super natural things that are happening around me until “something big” or flashy happens because it’s become normal to talk about it and see it. I’m gonna be home in about 45 days and these things are not going to be the normal. Along with those things, I won’t have to go outside my home to use the bathroom in a hole in the ground. Drinkable water will come from the tap in my house, not a bore hole down the street. I probably won’t wash my clothes by hand if there is a washing machine available. People will generally follow road rules, not completely disregard them. Dinner will (hopefully) be more than rice and beans every night.
I’m realizing that I have a choice. I can choose what I want to be normal. I can choose to continue to walk in the truths I’ve learned while walking with this community. I can share those truths with my community at home. I can choose to continue to walk a newly solidified identity in Christ. I can continue to operate within the natural and the supernatural. Not everything needs to be re-adjusted in 45 days. And for me, that’s a really comforting thought.
The idea of re-entry to America is scary for me. So if you think of me, pray for my heart to be prepared for what America has to offer me and pray for America’s heart to be prepared for what I have to offer it. Pray that I would choose the best things from my life before the Race and the best things from my life during the Race and that I would integrate them to have the best things surrounding me in my life Post-Race.
So, what’s normal? It’s whatever you and I choose it to be, even when it seems like certain things are beyond our control to choose, we still have a choice. We always have a choice because is for Freedom that Christ set us free, and for no other reason than that.
Be blessed, friends and family 🙂
