You know those days when everything stinks and all you can do is shuffle your favorite band on your iPod and tune out for a while? For me that band is the Avett Brothers. And I’m sorry to say it but sometimes on the Race it just feels like everything stinks. So I’ve listened to a lot of Avett these past seven months.
I had them playing one day at the beginning of January and the song The Weight of Lies came on. I’ve loved this song for a long time but this particular time I listened to it I heard something that I never heard before. Before I explain, let me tell you what was going on just before this song started playing.
I was thinking seriously about leaving the World Race and coming home early.
It had nothing to do with the particular month. My time in South Africa was incredible, one of my favorite months yet. But as great as it had been I was still struggling beneath the burden I felt had been weighing me down.
This trip has been a lot of things that I didn’t want.
And it hasn’t been some of the things that I really did want.
So I began to ask myself, is going home early what I actually want?
As I’m mulling all of this over, a song comes on that I’ve heard a thousand times before. “The weight of lies will bring you down and follow you to every town cuz nothing happens here that doesn’t happen there…” A line I’ve heard but maybe never really understood. I guess I always figured it was about a guy telling lies and then trying to get away from the consequences by moving, only to have the same thing happen again. And maybe that is what Seth and Scott meant when they wrote the song, but this time I heard it and it meant something different to me.
Nothing happens here… on the Race… that doesn’t happen there… at home. Not really anyway.
Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and satan is the father of lies. He lies to us to hurt us and hold us back from God’s best for us. Lies like “You’re unlovable,” “God isn’t good,” or maybe even “This trip was a mistake and you should’ve just stayed home.” Problem is he’s good at what he does, and the lies can seem so true at times.
The song goes on “So when you run make sure you run to something and not away from, cuz lies don’t need an airplane to chase you down…”
No matter where we are he will lie to us. Either to cut us down, create division between us and the people around us, or separate us from God and the good things He has for us.
If I went home early it would be because I believed a bunch of lies.
“What I’m doing here doesn’t matter… it’s not even really worth it.”
“I deserve, or need, my friends and family… a different, and better, community.”
“Things will be better, maybe even perfect, at home. These problems only exist here.”
The truth is that nothing happens here that doesn’t happen there. People bug you, even hurt you. Ministry is rewarding, but sometimes you’re afraid that you’re wasting your time. There are highs and lows and celebrations and disappointments. I know that God can and will use me and teach me new things when I’m at home, but for now He has me here. And how am I to know what special things He has for me in this season that I might not be able to experience in the States?
Once I figured all that out, the lies lost their power. I went on to have one of the best months of my trip after this realization.
Which of satan’s lies have you been believing? And more importantly, what might God be trying to say about it through your favorite band? Open your ears, you might be surprised at the freedom He has in store for you.
