With launch 11 short days away, my days are filled with last minute trips to the pharmacy, trial and error packing, and lots of coffee date good byes. It’s in these last few days that it’s really hit me that this is happening, my life will be dramatically simplified, I’ll be taking on the world with nothing more than my backpack and my God. I’m not sure what I’m feeling…nervous, ready or not, but it sure doesn’t make the question “Are you excited” easy to answer. Nearly every conversation I have in these days circles back to “You must be so excited!” I’ve given this a lot of thought and decided that the topic would make a good pre-launch blog. So here it is!
WHY I’M EXCITED FOR THE WORLD RACE, AND WHY IT’S NOT FOR THE REASONS YOU THINK
1. I’m not excited to travel the world; I’m excited to live out the great commission
Who wouldn’t love the chance to put “life on hold” and travel the world for an entire year? I’m sure given the chance most people would hop on it. For me though, this isn’t “putting life on hold” this is my life. There’s many places in the Bible where interpretation can vary but in Matthew 28 when Jesus tells his disciples “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”… I think He’s pretty clear.
I know that God uses people in different ways in different places to fulfill this commission. God has purposefully created each and everyone one us. “So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly” (Romans 5:6).
In my life God has called me to go, as my part in the body, a scary thing if we’re being honest. But The Lord has made it evident to me that He is glorified in my life far more when I am whole- heartedly passionate about what I am doing, that just happens to be loving and serving unreached people. The gospel turned my life upside down, and when it did I encountered the love of God in an unexplainable way; I want to be the love of Jesus to the people who’ve never even heard his name. That’s why I’m doing this thing called the world race. You see I’m passionate about missions because my God is passionate about me. Traveling the world is a passion of mine, so I am excited, so excited in fact, but it kind of pales in comparison to message I have the privilege of taking with me, don’t you think?
2. I’m not excited for the Instagram days; I’m excited for the hard days
I for one am guilty of the Instagram life, I’ve stalked the hashtags “11n11” and “worldrace” but these pictures don’t tell half the story of the life they are living behind their go pros and inadequate iPhone cameras. I know because I’ve done an abbreviated version of the race. In those 3 months, I had far more hard days than Instagram worthy days, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Those 3 months changed my life and it was because of those harder than hard days. I found myself over and over again in a place of total surrender and complete dependence on the Lord. He was there every morning, every minute of every day, and every night when I couldn’t sleep in fear of what bugs might find there home with me that night.
God brought me to my lowest place during that trip but because He did, I found Him a new way, and for the first time I understood what it meant to be emptied of myself and filled with Him. The days filled with challenges were worth it, my relationship with the Lord grew deeper and intimate as a result.
It’s so hard to “need” God in the self sufficient culture of America. Our needs are taken care of, and culture promotes independence, leaving little to no room for God. When I came home from 3 months in Central America, I was so excited for the comforts of the first world. But those comforts soon overtook all the areas that I had needed God for. And as I settled back into the American lifestyle I started taking back all the areas of my life that I had surrendered to God. Before I knew it, I was destroying the deep and intimate relationship I created over those past 3 months in a matter of weeks.
I am desperate to be dependent again. I am excited for the days of adventure on this journey but I am more excited for the days you won’t see pictures of. Because those are the days that matter. The days when I have nothing but the strength that God gives me to keep going.
This year will no doubt be extraordinary. So the answer to your thought provoking question; YES I AM EXCITED. I am excited to seek after the Lord, to know Him better, to know myself better, to see the world and to share with people of all different tongues and tribes the good news that their God loves them oh so very much- so much he gave himself so they might have life.
‘Here I am, send me’
I’m ready Lord
