Three countries and six months of the race have come and gone.
This last month in Thailand has been a period of patience.
For the last three years of my life I have always stayed busy. When I was in high school I had a job. In college I worked when I wasn’t in class. After I was accepted into the World Race I worked two jobs to pay for gear, vaccines, and debt. Three years of constant “GO GO GO.” What I didn’t realize was that this was the pace of America. We have the mindset that we have to “go faster” and to “stay busy.”
The biggest struggle I have had on the race is to slow down. I have never had so much free-time in my life. Okay. Maybe I did have this much free-time when I didn’t have my drivers license. My point of all of this is that I have not spent this much time with my thoughts in a long time. Besides, when you’re 15 what kind of problems do you have that you need to spend a lot of time processing your thoughts?
Month six has been a long one. Filling my time with teaching English, long walks (and by long walks, I mean I walk 6 miles everyday), working out, hanging out with my team, and a lot of sitting with the Lord. This is my last week of ministry in Thailand and I can now say as hard as it’s been to ”stop;” I’m here taking the time to thank the Lord for giving me this period to process with Him. My life won’t always be like this. When I step back into the responsibilities of life I won’t always have this space for processing available to me. No, it doesn’t make the days shorter, but it has taught me to be patient.
Romans 12:12 says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
This is exactly what I’ve had to do. I’ve been joyful in the hope of what the Lord has for me, patient in the long times of suffering, and I have most definitely been faithful in my prayer.
love always,
mac
