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The race is hard. I left my life. Literally just stepped out of it and took off to find a new one. So far, I have died–a lot. Parts of me are gone and will never be back. Things have been uprooted and will never regrow. New things have been sown. New Life has been breathed into me. But the race is hard. Dying is hard. Uprooting is hard. New growth is hard. Not to mention the camel spiders at our campsite. Or the hole in my tent. Or the leak in my sleeping bad. The heat. The squatties. The never-ending Shima. The lack of showers. The blisters on my hands and feet. Or my almost daily cravings for Jacqueline’s, Freebirds, or Herby K’s. Or any of the other stuff that you would think would be the tough stuff, because that stuff is easy. It’s easy compared to being 100% honest with your team. It’s easy compared to doing to yourself and beginning to be someone/something else entirely. It’s easy compared to really seeing yourself. Far too frequently and far too easily does daily life become a distraction. At home, that may look like school, work, church, friends, or family. Here on the race, that can look like travel, ministry, or even community. Spectacular things can easily slip from extraordinary into ordinary if we get too used to them. Even adventure, if not taken at the proper dosage, can become mundane. For me, Malawi has not been easy. It has not been comfortable. It has been beneficial. We have not gone out into the community much. Yea, yea, yea, for the two of you who support me financially, your money is going to a great cause. We have planned an evangelism soccer tournament with a local missionary using the Living Ball. But that’s not why your money is going to a great, worthy cause. Because the soccer tournament will end. World racers will leave. This month the squad has been more or less stripped of the (far too frequent) distraction of ministry. We have literally been spending 24 hours a day in intercessory prayer for one another, or ministry and this country. Teams take shifts and spend their time relationaly pursuing their creator. And he has shown at least myself a clear picture of my humanity. And it’s inescapable. I found myself longing for more ministry to do to others because I couldn’t bare the heart of being exposed–the reality of vulnerability. So this month has been hard. The race is hard. But during this month, I did very little ministry, but sat quiet and still as God did ministry to me… which, if you think about it, is much more important and long lasting. Good demands that I love Him with my entire heart before he asks that I love others. He says the very same to you. So I ask you, what things are you using as a distraction from the one thing that really matters, and what are you going to do about it? |
