*this is kinda two blogs smushed together that have taken some time to develop*
‘If I’m out of my mind, it’s You, You, cause I’m crazy in love with You, You.
Inebriated by You, You, cause I’m head over heels for You, You.’ – David Crowder
2 Corinthians 5:13… “If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.”
I’ve got to be out of my mind. As I was listening to the above lyrics while walking the streets of China, I realized what a crazy thing I’m doing. It really (and finally) dawned on me… “What in the world am I doing?!?!?!?!” I’ll tell you:
I’m sweating/freezing, tired, cramped, bored/too busy to see straight, eating poorly, showering seldomly, sleeping sporadically, suppressed in worship/not allowed to worship the Lord at all, surrounded by beggars and children with no clothes or mothers, living amongst a population that is 94% Buddhist/100% non-religious/etc, stared at (gawked at, actually), talked about, honked at, pointed at, ripped off, completely ignored, followed for crying out loud, sometimes lost (yes, only sometimes), allowed ~$8 a day to live on, communicating poorly in half a dozen different languages, slammed sardine-style into a train bunk for 30 hours, living in constant and disturbing proximity to lice, ticks, and mosquitos, traveling without the comfort and security of my friends or family(save the WRs, of course), often living in a tent and cooking over a wood fire, carving down everything I own to under 45 pounds, and loving nearly every minute of it.
Why do I love it? What is this? This is the World Race. This is me getting over myself; getting my walls and biases crushed. This is me getting my perspectives wrecked and my worldview eviscerated. This is me being obedient to the Father who sometimes forces His way into my soul and grabs my heart with His hands to balance perfect love and peace with the notion that you’ve got to be really left of center. This is me being totally transparent because it’s pretty hard to lie to 25 accountability partners, but what I manage to sneak by them will come to light the next time I go to the secret and quiet place with my Dad. All this so that I can spread a scandalous idea about Life and the Afterlife; to bring light to darkness, order to chaos, sight to the blind, hope to the lost, truth to all, a purpose to those seeking, and glory to an embarrassingly extravagant God. What a notion(!) that there is a Christ, a Savior, that breaks all chains and religion and governments; that restores hope and sheds grace and mercy to all who ask.
At the risk of getting fussed at by a fellow Racer, I’m going to wrap this up with a line from a vision that was given just before we left for China; a single sentence that has almost entirely revamped me in the last month. The vision is that our worship is a tangible flood flowing in a heart-shaped river around the throne of God. The line is this: “It is the Joy of the Lord to get His feet wet in our worship.”
