Viet Nam - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

There are lots of things I could put in this lone blog about Viet nam, but I will try to keep it brief. Viet nam was hard, not for everyone, but definitely for me. To say the “honeymoon phase” of the race is over would be a colossal understatement. Still, it would be a lie to say the month was a loss. There were many laughs and tons of Thai bubble tea (love!), I had plenty of reading time, and we had a washing machine! The best and most important thing, though, was getting to learn some amazing and hard life lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life (hopefully).

One such thing, and maybe the underlying theme of the month, was the devastating effects of pride. As Americans, we are taught to have pride. We are proud of our country, of our home, of our accomplishments. We are told that we need to have it, that we will be successful if we make pride a part of ourselves — to take pride in ourselves, our work, and how we live. But is it really healthy? Does it aid in deep relationships? Does it ignite love and honesty? What about peace? Im going to go out on a limb here and say no. No to all. You see, from the first step I took into Vietnam, I was hit with the reality of what pride can do. I was reminded about our history here, I mean, who couldn’t be? At first I wanted to write a blog about how grateful I am that generational hate and fear had not been passed to me from my parents, though it definitely could have been. (For example, my grandfather on my mother’s side has no idea that I was in Vietnam, or Cambodia for that matter.) And while it is important that I didn’t receive any of those things, why are they there in the first place? Where do the conflict, war, fear and hate come from? I mean back at its root. I would venture to say pride. Thinking that you are somehow better than the next person, that what you have is superior to those around you, this is what pride is. While large scale pride is obviously detrimental, what about personal pride? All those things that we are “supposed” to be proud of — is there harm in those?

Enter in what the Lord has been revealing to me…it all started about half way through Vietnam. I was hurt by something that was brought up in team time (more accurately my ego/pride was hurt. Happens to the best of us). Being a fully mature 23 year old woman, I reacted in the only responsible way there is. I got angry and shut down. I know, I know, you’re blown away by my insight, wisdom, and self-control, right? yeah me too… So of course, I let myself sit in it for a couple days, let it grow and get worse. When it finally did come out and truth was spoken into that place, I immediately saw how ridiculous I had been. However, my pride in not wanting to admit my hurt had not only kept me from the freedom that truth brings in those situations, it had also allowed time to create hurt for someone else. —This is the most important thing that I learned: When you allow your pride to grow, you not only keep yourself in that hurt but you push that hurt onto those around you. — Large scale or small scale, nothing is worth that. In my own ridiculous pride I had been blind to the hurt I was then causing. It wasn’t the initial comment that had hurt my friend. It was me. And let me tell you, that is a sucky pill to swallow. To know that I was capable of making someone I loved hurt the same way I had been hurt is terrible, and might I say quite a hit to my pride. Although it was hard and it sucked, we have made it through. The Lord has not only brought healing to both of us, but allowed for that space of hurt to be a beautiful space of growth. The laying down of both of our prides allowed us to accept the growth and to step out of the hurt into healing.

This topic is hard and is a case by case choice to step into, at least at this stage anyway. There is a great book about this that I read this month. If you want to read more about it (its short, about 80 pages maybe), it’s called “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness.” I would definitely suggest you give it a read. Anyway, thats about all I have for Viet Nam.

Thanks for stopping by

— Lyndie

Bonus! here are some pictures from the month!