The feeling of beginning The World Race is like the feeling you get when you start thinking really hard about life and God.
You’re thousands of miles above the earth, with nothing but clouds and wide open space between you and the ground.
You begin to think about what it will be like to step off the plane at the end of this flight.
You begin to think about all of the unknowns that are about to happen in your upcoming year.
You begin to think about the people you’ll encounter and how you’re going to be able to impact them, and how they’re inevitably going to impact you.
Then, your mind takes a reverent step back, and you think about how you got here in the first place.
You gaze down through the tiny plane window to the earth far below you, and you imagine that this is how God feels every day. You know He’s always watching you, but yet He’s also dwelling in your heart?
Suddenly, your heart just stops at the thought of how much you are loved. With a bird’s eye view of the world, you imagine that you’re lounging with God, discussing reminiscently each and every one of His children down below. You like to think that this is what He actually does on a daily basis – observes His children and boasts about each of them to His angels.
Your mind then turns back to the people you’ll meet during your 11 months in 11 different countries.
Do all of these people know how much they’re loved?
Do they realize that they have a father who is watching them from above and walking alongside them through life both at the same time?
Do they really understand that they can have a relationship with this powerful God that they may or may not have heard so much about?
You don’t know what the answers to these questions are for sure, but you decide right then and there that no matter what, this year is about those people.
Even amongst all the excitement of roaming from country to country and taking in all the wonders, you ask God to not allow you to forget about the reason you are doing this – the reason you’re sitting on this plane in the first place.
It’s not to fulfill your desire to travel and see things you’ve never seen before – as life-changing as that in itself will be – it’s to remind people how much they are loved by the One who created them.
And as you watch the world below slowly shift past, you remind yourself again that that is your mission.
Wake up, child of God – your mission is starting.
