Well, it’s been a ride, hasn’t it?
I know, I know. We still have 25 days left together. For 25 more days, I have the honor and privilege of waking up with you!
Though, in 25 days, I’ll wake up without you.
I only imagine with difficulty how insanely foreign May 31st will be. That morning, we will be eating breakfast together, laughing and waking up as we always do; Kourtney having already been awake for 4 hours and hyped up on 3 cups of coffee, and Josten very much not. We will worship together, rejoicing as the relief of the past season being over – with its challenges, its joys, and everything in between – arrives. We will embrace the grief that comes; remembering everything that was, sitting in what is, and looking forward with holy anticipation for what is to come. We will say goodbye.
Right now, our hearts are being prepared as finalization begins its gentle tugging; realizing that Philip and Brook will be with our teams for only one last time, rejoicing that plantains will be a staple of our diet for only a short while longer, and understanding that the consistency of which we see each other’s faces is about to be lessened with great intensity. We presently feel the great call of urgency to choose into each other, knowing that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is nowhere near as great as a meal around a long plastic table. We all know and are coming to embrace that, my dear friends, we only have 25 more days of this beautiful, transforming, and heart awakening season. But do you know what?
I would not trade these next 25 days for the entire whole wide world.
Even if the whole wide world had unlimited access to jellybeans.
So, Gap C. I want to thank you; for how passionately you have desired honor and love above all else at the expense of your own way, for how purely you have led me to the Jesus, knowing that he is the one where Eternal Life dwells and remains, and for how willingly you have walked in love, so as to have been a part of our souls being awakened to the love of our sweet, sweet, Father.
To try to tell you about how much I love you is, as I am finding, quite impossible. A long time ago I realized that to love is far harder than to not; who knew? Yet, as I sit here writing this on my polka-dotted bed sheet, I have found that if this is what love brings, it is completely and unquestionably, worth it.
Being a part of Gap C has been one of the greatest honors I have ever had the chance to partake in. I can not imagine where I would be if it were not for Gap C, and thank God that I do not have to – for this was exactly meant to be. We were put here, all together, for the very reason that God had us for each other. I mean, was it a coincidence that this year, out of all years, we chose to go on the World Race, of all things? I don’t think it likely.
You have been everything and more than I imagined you would be. You far exceeded the great expectations with which I walked into this year, and I am only left with gratitude. Gratitude in that whenever I am sitting around a table with good people, I will remember you.
Whenever I eat a Dunkin donuts ice cream cone, I will remember you.
Whenever I see a McDonald’s, I will remember you (and Shaun Wenner-Foy).
And whenever I think about heaven, I will remember you.
Gap C – I love you. The world ain’t ready for us.
-Elijah
