Aww… the season of Lent. 40 days of struggle and intense testing from the enemy! We all love this time, right? Ha, well not this guy! It has been a grueling first couple weeks for me, and after failing miserably by succumbing to the desires of what I gave up. I now feel rather dry, spiritually.
Most would say this is a time where God has finally felt close and they are growing in faith. And on approach to Holy week their souls begin to feel grieved with conviction by God’s Spirit! Yet, not I. I have felt little prompting from God in these last few weeks. And today, I finally realized why!
The great focus shift from GOD to GEAR (and the logistics of wrapping up life in the states)!
I am sure nearly every racer has been here at some point before Launch, so let me explain to those of you who on going on this journey with me back home.
Basically, what happens as the launch clock ticks down is that your mind goes into survival mode. You think of the necessities you might need for an entire year and begin to hunt those things down ferociously. You begin this daily habitual process of checking those fancy flash sale sites (theclymb.org) and read scores and scores of product reviews until you yourself could walk into a job at REI. You become consumed!
Your daily Bible readings and Spirit-filled conversations become quick verse look-ups on your phone and a hail-mary or two before you eat dinner and fall asleep. God and your relationship with Him gets pushed to the way-side. What matters now is finding those mad deals on flights to Training Camp and pouncing on every bright green carabiner you can strap to your pack! Your life becomes dependent on the gear and not dependent on the Creator. Survival translates into how many things of this world you can carry in your pack, not about the love that you carry that is not of this world!
Day in and day out you fall into this self-deprecating blackhole that is gear! But more than that. Because you have fallen out of the word to pursue earthly things, the desires of sin begin to creep back into your life. And the worst part of it all is that you think you can hide it! You think no one in your family will notice this shift in focus. No one whom you volunteer or work with can see that your lackluster. Wrong! They can tell.
And the reality of it all came into a grandiose culmination, when my Old Man called me out on it. He said “I can see your not into the Word anymore. You haven’t written anything on your visioneering board. What has God been saying to you?” All I could muster was a lame, “I don’t know.”
“Well get back to it,” he said. “Get back to what Jesus wants for your life!” “Actually listen to what He is saying in His Word!” “Write it down, keep it at the front of your mind (Deut. 6)!”
“It is worth the Journey!”
And surprisingly that was all it took to realign my focus to God and away from the things of this world that so easily entangle. Someone close to me to hold me accountable to the Goal, the Mission, and the Faith!
So, if you as a racer are going through this, I feel for you! Reach out to someone that is close to you and ask them to challenge you! And if you are a supporter of a racer step up and call them out in prayer and conversation! They need it! I need it! We all actually need this!
Finally, I pray God has blessed you through this update & now I leave you with a song that I could not stop singing tonight! 
