After traveling around the world for the last eight months, being everywhere from Africa to Southeast Asia, to now being in South America; something I’ve come to discover is how to intent we are as world to make everything look like it’s perfect, like our lives are always great and there is little wrong with it. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve seen people attempting to take the “perfect” selfie, or trying to find the perfect picture for their instagram or facebook; and I’m completely guilty of it too. It’s as if we don’t want the world to know that we have bad days, that things aren’t always perfect that if we don’t have a great day and we can’t come up with some quirky commentary on it to make a life lesson on it than we don’t need to share it

    But here is something I’ve come to realize this year. LIFE IS NOT A PICTURE PERFECT MOMENT. Life isn’t perfect, we can lie all we want to ourselves, and to the world through the photos we share on social media, to the stories we tell about our adventures, to the partial truths we tell where we twist the truth to make things sound better than they are; but the truth is shit happens, bad things occur, you aren’t going to have picture perfect days 365 days a year and that’s okay.

    While it’s true that I’ve taken more photos than I can count since being on the World Race some of my favorite moments from the race aren’t captured on photo or film. While yes I take the photos to remind myself of the people I encounter, I don’t need a photo of every moment I’ve made.  Some of my favorite moments include walking down the dirt road in Malawi holding hands with the local kids, thinking if we were back in the states parent’s would freak out that I’m randomly holding their child’s hand when they’ve never met me before; cuddling with a child while he’s trying to figure out the next level on some game on my phone; having a child slide into my lap during story time; dancing in the rain; changing a diaper on a 10 year old child and seeing him smile when you tickle him; these and so much more are some of my favorite moments that you won’t see on my facebook and instagram. Sure you may see the child that I Cuddled with, or a group shot at the end of the month with some of the kids we changed diapers on, but you don’t see the moments and you don’t have the memories; and honestly I think it’s better that way.

    I think behind keeping our picture perfect moments off the social media, and focusing more on being present in life and what we’re doing currently instead of trying to find that perfect photo we as a society a whole need to start realizing that life isn’t Picture Perfect all the time. Right now I can think of so much that is going on back home, between family members, between health issues, financial issues, confrontations that need to happen and so much more; it all got me thinking about “the behind the scenes” of our life. We don’t like people knowing things aren’t perfect.

    I for one had a meltdown Monday night (8/1/16) because my G-pa had to undergo Brain Surgery that no one was expecting. But of course that’s not what you would see on my instagram or facebook, actually the only thing mentioned on my facebook about it is thank you for prayers. But that’s how we roll as a society, we thank people for the prayers afterwards, but rarely do we mention how we are really doing.

    In thinking about our race, I think often racers do a disservice to our supporters, families and future racers. We let you think that everything is picture perfect; but what we fail to tell you is how are heart breaks when we learn one of our favorite kids this month is in fact an orphan and will most likely live his whole life in an orphanage; we don’t let you in on how frustrating and tiring 24/7 community can really be. We don’t tell you we get tired of wearing the same five outfits day-in-day-out for 8 months straight before we finally give in and spend money to buy new clothes. We don’t tell you how hard growth and change can be, or excited we are that for the first time in 8 months we have hot showers all month long (yes, we were all excited). We don’t let you guys in on how when we’re sick, sometimes we just want the comforts of home but instead we get up and do another day of ministry instead because that’s what the Lord has called us to do in this season of life. We don’t let you in that we get more frustrated when you guys hold stuff back in at home and don’t let us in because you think it’s protecting us while where gone, when we’d rather know what’s going on; and we don’t let you know that the struggles of home still affect us despite being thousands of miles away.

   Life isn’t picture perfect, not here on the race and not back home either. I think it’s time we step out as a society and begin to acknowledge that life isn’t picture perfect. Yes the instagram photos, and the facebook photos and sharing all the great moments are awesome, but the the truth is those non-Picture perfect moments are every bit a part of our lives and we should share them too….we can use those not-so-picture-perfect moments to God’s glory as well. Whether that’s sharing the bad going on at home with someone on the mission field, this year for several of my squad members and I it has been health issues back home, it has been death, it’s been family miscommunication, it has been learning what healing and forgiveness is really like, it’s been so much; or it’s us on the field sharing with you guys back home the rough times, the nights we cry because we’re frustrated with the injustice of the world, that we don’t know what’s next and that scares us, that as hard as we want to be 100% present where we are we want to know what’s going on back home too.

    So here’s my question for you….are you living your life in a way that allows people to be let in, or are you living the facade and showing the world only the picture perfect moments? Do you live for those picture perfect moments or do you live for God, and to allow him to use both the good and the not so good for his Glory? Regardless, remember life isn’t all picture perfect moments, and that’s okay.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)