I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the World Race, few do unless I miss my guess. I thought I was signing up for a mission’s trip. I was, but a whole lot more as well. I remember when I heard about the structure I would be living in for the next 11 months; daily group feedback, a time where all members of the team are to give each other constructive and insightful thoughts on each other’s behavior publicly. Daily team time, a set aside time for doing group activities that provide material for team bonding. Weekly C&C’s, written reflection on your week and the Celebrations and Challenges that came your way. Buddy system, a rule that limits you going alone anywhere except to the bathroom. This was the bare minimum that needed to happen on a daily basis unless there was an emergency or you were washed up dead. At times we added more structure such as discussion times, devotional times, worship times, and even an occasional clean your living space time.
I’m going to be brutally honest, I did not enjoy the structure. Structure is rigid, cold, dead, unfeeling, and assumes all people are at the same place needing the same thing. People are flexible, warm, alive, full of feelings and are not all at the same place needing the same thing. Structure often looks good on paper in a perfect world, but in real life, things change and a structure that is rigid does not adapt well to change and humanness, all of which the world is full of, especially third world cultures. My time on the Race has been a constant love-hate relationship. I love people, missions, other cultures, kids, serving, fun times, teams, good discussions, hard conversations, speaking truth, but I struggled with the structure that says you will do thus and thus. Its brutal when structure says you have not had your mandatory team activities yet today, but it’s already 9:00 PM and I’m exhausted and have hardly seen my wife for the last few days and need time with her…. but structure wins and 2 hours later I am free from the laws of structure because I fulfilled my duty. But was that the best thing for me, was it what I really needed at that moment? Structure is impersonal at times like those and has no idea that instead of giving life, it brought exhaustion.
But I also realize that structure provides safety, security, and strength, all of which at times we need in our lives. Especially when we are living undisciplined or unhealthy lifestyles and need something to make us walk in a straight line and remove the distractions we don’t have the discipline in our lives to remove ourselves. Structure can help us change and grow and achieve the goals we want for ourselves. It can be a catalyst to launch you into something greater. Kept around for too long it can also limit people, and conform us all to looking and acting alike, sucking the very life out of us.
What I have learned on the race about structure is this. Structure is both good and bad. It is good for a season when needed, but becomes unhealthy when no longer needed but still imposed. It can only do so much for you, it can only take you so far in a good direction, than the rest is up to you. Once structure has done its job, it than becomes a hindrance, a sucker of life or the crutches that never allow you to learn to walk on your own and end up making you a cripple the rest of your life. Think of structure as training wheels. You may need them on your bike for a bit as a kid when you are learning to ride your bike, but left on too long and you are limited on how much you are going to be able to enjoy the ride. You can’t take turns fast, they stick out and catch on things, they make you feel like you are a kid, and limit your ability to truly be free and enjoy the ride and do tricks, and climb or descend rocky mountain trails or become an excellent bike rider or catch yourself as your toppling over to the side. They can actually cause you to land on your side as you round a corner because they hinder your ability to adjust and be flexible with what the trail throws at you and you can’t lean the bike to keep from going over! I see structure the same way. You need it at times to learn something, but than it needs to come off and you need to ride on your own or you will end up being limited and probably get a bunch of scraped elbows you don’t need to have because you just toppled over your training wheels on that last turn.
Maybe another word for structure could be the Law that God says brings us to him showing us we need him. But then he says, don’t live by that and let that be your guide, let me take you to a whole new level of life and that is in a relationship with me where I guide you, I motivate you, I tell you how to do it. God says let me be your security, your motivation, your safety; your structure. It’s called living life with him and being free. Being free to be way more than structure can ever make of you.
Take the training wheels off, be free and enjoy the ride! God has prepared the perfect path for you, it’s way more enjoyable without training wheels, trust me, I took mine off, and it’s amazing!
I have come to the conclusion I didn’t need the structure of the World Race, I already knew how to ride my bike, even if I am wobbly at times. So the training wheels of World Race structure constantly fought with my ability to enjoy the ride and took more of my energy trying to keep myself topside of my bike than they actually kept me topside of my bike. Have I enjoyed the world race? Yes and no. I enjoyed the people I met, the places I saw, and the ministry I was able to be involved in. I did not enjoy the structure, so much so that at times it overshadowed my experience and threatened to totally ruin the trip for me. To sum it up, it’s been good, it’s been bad, but through it all I knew God had me here for a reason, and that made all the difference.
