Hello everyone!! Today, I’m coming to you with a blog written by one of the coolest people I know, Kevin Colon aka my dad. It’s all about the perspective of a dad watching his daughter on World Race Gap Year, and it only made me cry, like, three times. I hope you love it as much as I did!
It’s so cool to be here with you on this blog. I’m actually a little intimidated because my writing in no way compares to my daughter’s. She is incredibly talented, super thoughtful, delightfully deep and funny, too. I pretend to be all of those things. If you’ve read this blog, you’ve laughed and cried and thought more deeply about God and life. That’s certainly been my experience. I’ve been inspired, provoked, challenged, encouraged and wrecked. There is no doubt that living vicariously through her nine-months adventure in the World Race and gleaning from her lessons has made me a better person.
Emma asked me to write about what it’s been like to be a dad with a student on the race. Really, only word comes to mind: “transformational.” I understand God and the life He wants for me better because of her trip. Let me give you one example.
Have you ever considered the relationship between spirituality and humanity? Sometimes those two realities seem to be world’s apart. The next day they’re jumbled together. Sometimes we think we’re experiencing one only to find that we’re neck-deep in the other. And at other times, maybe during the dark times of our life, we can’t feel either one. But then, there are those moments when our humanity and our spirituality collide in a wonderful and beautiful way and we’re fully aware of them coexisting together. It feels surreal. It feels extra ordinary. It’s almost like we’re superhuman. It’s at those times when we feel fully alive and fully free. Maybe you’ve experienced those moments. Well, through Emma’s experience, I wonder if those moments in the combined occurrence are meant to be our very real, every-day, all-the-time life. I’ve been wondering if what Jesus was trying to get across to us is that real, abundant, full life is when we get really close to our humanity (and other’s humanity) and our spirituality (and other’s spirituality) at the same time…deeply, meaningfully and intentionally. What if, “on earth as it is in Heaven” was not just a prayer for the end of time but also a fists-clenched, eyes-scrunched, from-the-depths-of-the-heart request for today—for the right here and the right now? I think that’s what my daughter is experiencing. It’s amazing. It’s beautiful. And man, that’s what I want to experience….all….the….time.
Watching Emma live this “heaven on earth” life has been a blast. It’s the kind of life from where all of the gifts and fruits of the Spirit emerge. The race for me as a dad has been grueling because I’ve missed my daughter so much. The race for me as a dad has been bitter-sweet, because I’ve wanted to be there to experience everything Emma has experienced. The race for me as a dad has been hard a times as it continues to usher my daughter into womanhood and her own life away from us. And yet, the race has also been a very special gift that, like the fish and loaves in that famous Bible story, has multiplied beyond imagination.
I love you Emma and thank you World Race!
