It’s been over a month since I’ve returned home. I arrived back in Washington State just before Thanksgiving and had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. We laughed and I told stories, everyone asking how was the trip. How do you answer a question like that? It was like I went on 11 different little adventures during the year, how can I sum it all up in one sentence? People ask what was your favorite part or country, how can one choose out of a million different things and places you experienced. Every time I am asked I feel as if a loss for words. What do I say, what do I choose? Should I just keep it generic?
I remember when I first landed back in the airport in Chicago. Everyone said goodbye as we waited for baggage and then broke off, one by one. I ran into a few fellow racers in my wing and we went to all get a beer while waiting for our flights. We all sat around, talking and laughing, but still… nothing is the same. The adventure with each other is over. Being in the states was like putting on old skin that, while comfortable and familiar, it did not feel right. People around were laughing and joking, unaware of all the miracles and wondrous things happening in the world, unaware of our journey. When I think back to that beer with my fellow racers, of the feeling as we sat there, I am reminded of that scene in Return of the King where the hobbits all return to hobbiton and sit in their old haunt, the Green Dragon. While drinking a mug of beer they stare and look around them, the people around just laughing and joking as if nothing has changed. In a way it hasn’t, not for those they left behind and then returned to. But deep in our hearts it has. Nothing can ever be the same, we’ve grown and changed so much.
“We are home. How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back?” -Frodo Baggins, Return of the King
And yet we must go on, live our lives. We must push forward with our dreams without delay and accept that the journey is over, like Sam right after the moment they all toast each other in the Green Dragon. He saw Rosie Cotton, his dream. Sam had changed over the year, he no longer was who he used to be and while it was uncomfortable being back where he used to live, the hourney grew him and made him into a man. He gathered his courage and went to Rosie Cotton in that instant and was married soon after with all of the support of his fellow hobbits.
So must I move on as well. It’s easy, when you’re back at home with the same community and friends who haven’t experienced what you have or have grown as you have, to fall back into where you used to be. It’s not anyone’s fault but it’s not right either. The lure’s of old temptations calling you, the lure of not doing anything but reveling in the past. For a month I have stayed but I cannot stay longer. It isn’t healthy for me to not keep pressing onward, to not pursue my dreams and live out my life.
The World Race is a wonderful experience, one of which I think more people should join. I promise if you go and fully invest yourself, you will come back changed. That might be a scary thought, as was for me, but it was compelling as well. I didn’t want to be who I was, I knew there was something more and did God show me how much more there was.
At the end of this month I will be joining the CGA program at Adventures in Missions for hopefully a year. Its a program for World Race Alumni to help find their calling and start on the path to it. My hope is to do their year long program and complete three different tracks (Leadership, Worship, and Story-telling) where I will attend classes, participate in discipleship and mentorship, have the opportunity to work in the Adventures in Missions office, and lead a one-week mission trip. I am excited to keep growing in my relationship with God and to expand my skill sets; I know this will be a good experience and stepping stone for me after the race.
To be able to attend I need to raise a total of $10,000 by July of which $2000 must be in by January 21st, 2015. Please prayerfully consider supporting me either financially or through prayer. Thank you, everyone, for your love and support throughout the year. It all has meant so much and will never be forgotten.
