One thing I can say about the world race is that it has changed my habit. Whether it’s changing my good habits to not so good ones or changing my bad habits to good ones, the world race has provided an environment in which changing your habits is very easy compared to my experience back home. But perhaps the biggest, most drastic shift in my habits happened when I set foot in Africa.
For example, back in the United States, I used to shower nearly everyday. Aafter spending a month in Colombia for our first month on the race, I noticed a slight drop in frequency of my showers about once every other day. I just associated this with not having access to warm water and taking cold showers isn’t pleasant so I could see why I showered less. I kept up this habit for most of the race with the exception of a couple of times when showering was just way to inconvenient. Then we arrived in Kigali, Rwanda in June. It was here that I noticed my shower habit turn from a habit to something that I really needed to think about and calculate carefully if and when it was appropriate to shower. I probably showered a total of 6 times during my 3 and a half week stay in Kigali. As I am typing this out, I get the feeling that some of you who are reading this are judging me for this. Perhaps you are horrified at the thought of averaging 2 showers a week. Maybe words like ”disgusting“ or “gross“ or running through your mind. If they are, realize I would have been right there with you, 10 months ago. However, now that I have been “enlightened” ( I am being facetious), words like “not that bad” and “you gotta do what you gotta do” are much more appropriate phrases. In proper defense of my action, water is not as readily available in Kigali as it is in other parts of the world. In fact, getting water every day was a chore to say the least. It involved walking or biking to a well which was at least a mile away with a large collection of Jerrycan, filling up said jerrycans and loading them onto a bike and biking all the way back. This was not something that we were allowed to do because we as guests were not allowed to do common household chore. The majority of that water our friend would bring us each morning was used to flush down our toilet which had a bit of a blockage and required double the normal amount of water to flush. By the time it was time to shower, no one wanted to use our leftover water for showering in case we needed it for flushing. Taking a shower became a very calculated decision that involved good timing and waiting until what I like to call the “point of necessity” to take a shower. In America, we take showers when we don’t need to, but it just feels good to be clean. On the race, I have learned more and more about “necessity showers” when it gets to the point that your ministry or witness is compromised and you can’t do God’s work to your full ability because of how dirty you are, then it’s time for a shower. When I was in America, I thought I needed a shower dail. It turns out you only need one, once every 3 or 4 days depending on who you are. The verse that comes to mind 1 Corinthians 13: 11 says it best “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.” I am no longer a child. If Africa has taught me anythin, that would be it. In fact, during my time in Ethiopi, I discovered limits that superseded my initial ideas of what I thought possible. The running water was off for most of our time there. As a result, I was only able to shower 3 times in the 15 days I was there. I believe I exceeded my preconceived limits of 3-4 days in between showers and I believe I was successful. If you put your mind to it and if your forced, you can achieve anything.
I will continue this blog about Habits I have learned on the race on my next blog. Tune in next time to hear more about the insights I learned about habit formation and how my experience with showering and other habits have taught me to shape an environment conducive to the formation of good habits.
