On of the most unifying desires of World Racers is the desperate desire to see more of God. The most devastatingly delightful surprise to World Racers is the discovery that this is not just a mission trip but a journey of discipleship. Indeed, all Christians would do well to know that outward missions never happens without inward discipleship, the two are mutually inclusive. We simply cannot engage the one without being confronted by the other.
And so, as it goes, we are traveling the world, desperately trying to simultaneously witness manifestations of the gospel and actively participate in manifestations of the gospel.
The world is a beautiful place. It can also be a dark place. And it is heart breaking and scary to admit this, but sometimes it feels like the Lord is just not around. Sometimes, like when a man asks one of our racers if he can buy her for the night, it seems like the Lord is far away. Sometimes, when government rules prohibit us from speaking too directly about the gospel, the Light of truth seems worse than estranged, it feels impossible.
Sometimes, we don’t know what is happening. We don’t know how this could possibly make sense in a world our God created. We hear silence. We see no fruit dropping around us.
It is a profoundly real experience to confront the sad brokenness of the world. The truth is that it ought to jar us, it ought to shake us, it ought to appall.
Many world racers, me included, have found themselves distressed, frustrated, or down right frightened because they just can’t see the Light.
This blog post posits an idea as to why…
I first traveled to New York City when I was a sophomore in high school. I went to all the sites, including the Empire State Building. It was awesome and majestic to see the city from such a height. There is only one problem with the view from the Empire State Building…you can’t see the Empire State Building from it!
A few years ago, on another trip to New York, I got to visit another observation tower at Rockefeller Center that had just re-opened. It had a beautiful view of the city, including a view of the Empire State Building. And I finally got to see what I had been missing.
This strange little parable helps explain our confusion and frustration. Sometimes the reason we can’t see the Light is because we are being the Light. The Lord is using us like a candle in a cave to illuminate the lies and the pain and the abuse of this earthly realm. It is trying, it is more exhausting than I can say, and it is incredibly humbling. If involves overwhelming faith and a firm clenching to the promises of Mystery. But sometimes we are called to be manifestations of the Light that we are so desperately looking for.
Perhaps the greatest gift that we may encounter is the ability to see God at work in our own lives, to realize that the gift of identity is not just something that nests inside of us but something that influences the atmosphere that we walk in. This is why community matters so much. One structure can call out another, seeing what they are often too close to see.
Sometimes, if we can’t see the Light, it is because we are looking just beyond our own glow. This journey is an incredible opportunity to look out over the vast beauty and hear the ineffable truth of the skyline that surrounds us. But we must also remember that we are a part of that skyline, standing tall and beautiful, displaying our own version of Beauty and Truth for the world to see.
