The World Race is hard…..
It’s hard to feel clean with a bucket of water when you’ve been spoiled with a shower (or the occasional bubble bath) every day of your life.
It’s hard to live, work, eat, and breathe with 5 other women every single day when you’ve lived alone for the past 7 years.
It’s hard to keep up healthy relationships halfway across the globe when wifi is spotty and days are busy.
It’s hard to eat rice every day for every meal and easy to forget how grateful you should be to have food on your table.
It’s hard to be enthusiastic and compassionate to the precious street children who come to your door at night during your “time off” and easy to dismiss that life is ministry, even during the “off hours.”
It’s hard to stay positive during a 40 hour bus ride in the back of a flat bed truck during the rain when you haven’t had a solid meal or a solid night’s sleep in 2 days.
It’s hard to pretend your back isn’t aching in pain after sleeping on the floor for over a month.
It’s hard to hear that life goes on while you’re away for a year- that people get married, friends pass away, loved ones are going through hard times, divorces are happening, babies are being born, jobs are changing, and you’re not there for any of it.
It’s hard to pick up and leave your new home, friends, and coworkers at the end of every month and unrealistic to think you’ll keep in touch with them (and all the others) when you can’t even keep up with your own family.
It’s hard to be sick, or sad, or homesick when you’re only 4 months in and have 7 months left before you see the comforts of home again.
It’s hard to grow so close to your team that they’ve truly become your very best friends and then find out that a team change is quickly approaching and the family you’ve grown to love is soon splitting up.
And it’s easy to forget that so many people around the world have it much, much worse than you do- even during those times that you think things are “hard.”
It’s funny how skewed a perspective can be when middle-class America is all that it’s really ever known.
Today, I’m praising God for the opportunity to see this world and to be uncomfortable while doing it.
