Eleven months has come and gone and I am finished. I completed the World Race and am now home! It feels like yesterday I got on a plane to leave and at the same time, 15 years have passed by. I want to write this blog to explain to you what God did in me this year, what the World Race has meant to me, and how thankful I am. I want to try and explain to you what traveling to 3 continents, visiting 14 countries, and partnering with 11 different ministries did in me. I want to tell you how living with 6 people everyday and traveling with 33 of them refined me. I want to describe to you the beauty I saw and the people I met. I want to enlighten you about poverty and the injustices I still ache from. I want to share the miracles I witnessed and the testimonies I heard. I want to make you laugh by telling you my most culturally embracing story I have, or cry from the hardest things I encountered and walked through. I want to explain the heart I now have for orphans and my desire to adopt one day. I want to give you a play by play of each month so you could grasp what the Lord did in me over these 11 months in my soul. I want to tell you everything, but that wouldn’t be just one blog…nor do I have all those thoughts organized myself.
So, I would love to share more of those stories as time comes and as you ask to hear, but today I am going to put my year in just three words:
Identity, Courage, Discipline
When God called me to the Race, He told me it would be a year to prepare me for the rest of my life, a year to teach me about my identity in Christ. In month 1 I uncovered the misconceptions of how I viewed God, in month 5 I began to see how He viewed me, and in month 10 I found peace and security in the truth. His kindness and love won me over. I learned that I am a Daughter of the King, worthy and valuable. I have purpose and am gifted. I am unique and loved wholeheartedly. I wear a crown of beauty and grace. My identity in Christ has left me rooted in Him for the first time in my life and I trust God more than ever before.
As I grew this year in identity, the Lord restored my courage. Growing up I was quick to please people, compare myself to others, and forfeit grace to myself. I walked in fear and was scared to step out. I preferred to live safely, hidden, and comfortably to avoid getting hurt. I mastered being transparent not vulnerable; I shared what I wanted, when I wanted, and to who I wanted with the struggles. So being placed in 24/7 community every day of the Race left me little space to hide or distant myself. Granted, I tried for some time, but eventually gave up. Growth in my identity called me higher in courage as I learned to trust Jesus and the Father. Courage was the testing of my faith. I learned humility in practicing courage and grace for myself and others. I learned to step out and trust God, to take risk, and to leap forward. I stopped seeking perfectionism and chose dependency instead. It was courage that brought the most kingdom growth in my heart, my faith, and in the world. I became a courageous Daughter of the King.
Discipline became an active part of my race after getting baptized month 6. It was up until this point, I honestly didn’t grasp the full gospel. When I got baptized, I left earning my salvation and perfectionism in the river. I was free from fear and safe to fail because Christ was truly enough for me. Seeking out discipline now was life giving, instead of exhausting, because I believed the grace and freedom the cross had brought to me. I grew so much from beginning to actually read the word, pray daily, exercise weekly, eat healthy, sleep regularly, and seek out kingdom. I wasn’t practicing these things to get rewards, but to see glory come and be a good steward of what God has given me. I realized He has given me an able body, the Holy Spirit, a loving community, and the Word of God, and I don’t want to waste it. Walking in discipline has given me a clarity, focus, and purpose each day that I lacked prior. It provides me with a energy and joy that is unstoppable and inexhaustible.
The Race in three words, identity, courage, and discipline, embodies all that the Lord did in me and through me this year. They are all connected; if I had never grown in my identity in Christ and chose courage, I wouldn’t have seen the need to grow in discipline. God refined, restored, and matured me sending home a changed Daughter of the King. I am most thankful for the work He did in me this year.
Thank you sincerely for partnering with me throughout this journey!
God Bless
A Daughter of the King
MacKenzie Taylor Hutchins
