It's funny. People ask me a lot of questions about World Race (which I will soon be answering in an upcoming post), but very rarely does someone ask, "Why? Why are you doing the World Race?"
Why, indeed. Why am I leaving my family, friends, and country. Why am I leaving my comfortable home and my four poster bed. Why am I leaving Starbucks and laundry machines. Why am I leaving the possibility of grad school or pursuing my passions to form a meaningful career.
There are many reasons why I am doing World Race, most of which I am not aware of. I feel like I signed up for this big, crazy ordeal without totally realizing what it would entail. But I also know that I was led to this point, and that in sending me everywhere except where I'm comfortable, God has something fascinating up his sleeve. So here's the visible part of my journey toward World Race.
A few years ago, on a school break, I was home and sitting on the sofa, probably watching Seinfeld, and thumbing through a magazine that had found its way to the coffee table. I don’t remember what magazine it was, but I remember the moment my gaze was snagged on a little half-page article: something called World Race, an 11-month long mission trip that visits 11 countries, living with and serving the poor and “least of these” around the world. My ability to do this was far off since I was in school, but World Race stuck in my head, and I wondered if this was something I could join one day. I have always wanted to travel, and at college I have been part of a vibrant, deep, faithful community of Christians, and the potential to be part of both those things was captivating.
So I googled World Race, and Adventures in Missions, the organization that the race is a part of. I watched some videos and read some blogs as my interest waxed and waned. But it stuck in my head.
Fast forward to the end of December, 2012. I went to Urbana, an Intervarsity missions conference in St. Louis, and got owned (College students: if you ever have a chance to attend Urbana, do it). There, I was bombarded with many of what I call the “ugly Bible verses.” You know, the ones that we skim over or rationalize because they sound so harsh and intolerant and black and white and overzealous. I was shaken by verses like:
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:32
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:61
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26
Not easy! I think my education also made it difficult to hear these words. As a student at a liberal arts college, I lived for four years in an environment where decisive truth claims, especially regarding morality or beliefs, are considered BIG no-no's, not to mention a hindrance to one's ability to learn with integrity and respect. These are real issues that I'm still working through as a product of both secular academia and the Church, but I digress, a little.
At Urbana, here's what troubled me the most:
Being a Jesus-follower means you can’t follow anything else.
But the problem with that is that following Jesus means being misunderstood. It means doubting. It means suspending your own logic and leaning on the foolishness of the cross. It means being unpopular. It means giving up your priorities. It leads to pain. It requires dying to yourself. (And what, really, does that even mean?)
To follow Jesus is a severe, polarizing action.
And so, when Jesus calls us to be his imitators, he asks us to count the cost, because it really does cost everything.
But.
To follow Jesus is to make the astounding bet that He is worth everything.
And so rather than using my brain to figure out if I should follow Jesus (because I could think myself around futile circles for years), I'm to the point where it's time to move. And so, not for the first or last time in my life, I move unambiguously to the side of Jesus. I'm taking the chance, and I am quite sure, that he is worth everything, and more real than any idol I've ever invented.
In Philippians, Paul says something that knocks my socks off: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him."
Did you hear that? Paul's giving up everything for the single goal of knowing Jesus. When we imitate Jesus, when we make him our Lord and allow God's kingdom to invade Earth, wonderful things happen, things I hope to see: justice for the oppressed, love for the forgotten, victories for losers. But that wonderful stuff isn't an end in itself: it points to the Author and Perfecter of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The goal of following Jesus is Jesus.
And so that's why I'm doing World Race. Because for a couple years, God's been cementing this opportunity in my future, and now, when I have the chance to take it, I'm going for it.
