To start I have a few updates on this crazy life! About a week or so ago I was given a new team. A final team. How wild is it that we only have two months left on this journey? Our leadership decided the last two months should be a season of “unraveling” preparing ourselves for the reality that is quickly approaching. We were able to make suggestions about who we felt called to spend our last bit of time on the race alongside and the teams were formed accordingly. I couldn’t have picked it better myself. So feel free to meet them via their blogs !!!— Matt Cotov, Regan Smith, Luke Hanna, Jack Twitty, and Taylor Hendren (you may remember her from my team the first four months of the race!!)
This month we are ministering to university students with CRU in Quito, Ecuador. After a crazy travel experience from Peru, including a small 24 hour hostage situation (ask me about this one later) we made it to Quito last Saturday. I am so pumped about the relationships we will form as well as an upcoming film festival where we will causally drop the gospel on a whole theater of students. Be praying for these things, as well as for the longterm CRU team we are here to encourage and support.
Now back to this blog. One thing most all of you may know about me is my love for yoga. This year I’ve had to be creative with my travel mat and lack of a studio. I lead my own practice and have to depend on my own discipline to push myself and keep growing. During these months of trading the studio for a patch of dirt, a field of dead grass, or a smog filled rooftop, I’ve been fortunate enough to convert many teammates into being my fellow yogis. I’ve realized my passion for teaching others and witnessing their surprise as one day they wake up and realize they also can now stand upside down on their heads.
This month, my team being filled of go-getters, has decided that they will finish the month with perfect headstands. Every morning whether I am leading yoga or not they all huddle together in the grass outside our compound and practice their headstands. A few of them, a week ago could hardly kick their legs up without falling smack on their backs, and possibly snapping their necks in two. Just this morning I witnessed each one of them totally nail it. And that’s what is so beautiful about yoga to me.
Something that seems daunting at the start miraculously becomes obtainable. The middle time, the time full of tying and failing, hurting and discouragement, you don’t quite notice. One day you can’t and before you know it you suddenly can.
You shock yourself with what you have become capable of. “How did I even get here?!”
You realize the importance of trying and failing and you keep going for it.
It’s so much like our spiritual journey with the Lord. There isn’t an extensive rule book of how to grow closer to the Lord, how to hear His voice, or how to walk in boldness. The Bible just simply reminds us hundreds of times that’s it’s all about faith and faith alone. Faith is what will stretch you, grow you, and guide you to the seemingly impossible. Faith is why you choose to flip your life upside down.
This faith I speak of means believing in the things unseen, and choosing to walk blindly toward an invisible goal. If you glance out at the world around you, you will realize your view has been flipped, it’s head spinningly backwards, and if you stare too long at the things around you, you will fall flat on your face.
The secret trick of nailing your headstand is finding one fixed point to focus your gaze on and never letting your eyes wander. It’s basically the same in our Christian walk. Just look at Jesus, keep your eyes focused on the goal and He won’t let you fall.
I’ve seen it to be so true throughout my time on the race. I know I have changed and grown, and experienced The Lord in more of His fullness than I could have ever imagined but the getting here part is a bit fuzzy. One day, maybe before the Race, I thought I couldn’t, and now I miraculously can. I can be bold, I can share my faith, I can experience miracles here on earth, I have changed. That’s what growth is.
I flipped my life upside down, and I just kept gazing with all my strength at Jesus. It was probably a shaking start, and I know I fell on my face many times, but now it would take a strong strong storm to knock me over.
But even when the storms come, even if I do get knocked over, I know I will still be able to find that fixed point to set my gaze upon, a light piercing the darkness.
I will resume my upside down position because the Lord keeps inviting us to more. I’ll keep balancing on my head, focusing my gaze and one day I’ll miraculous realize through the time full of trying and failing and hurting and discouragement I’ve gone from balancing on my head to soaring through skies.
Top Photo: April 23rd, 2018
Bottom Photo: May 7th 2018
As seen from Left to Right: Regan Smith, Taylor Hendren, Luke Hanna, Matthew Cotov, Jack Twitty, Mary Claire Brogden
