“You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious Yeah,
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?”
(‘Everything Glorious’ David Crowder Band)
Instagram, Facebook (and I imagine, Twitter, if I had it) are filled with latest posts, blog updates, photos and status’s of friends going on, and currently on, missions trips. I see photos of friends, still on their World Race adventure, rafting down flooded streets in Manila, to former squad mates/teammates leading Passport and World Race trips in Latin America exploring jungles and climbing mountains. To other former teammates who are back in the land of South East Asia (Cambodia of all places!!! Oh my heart desires!!) and I am seeing the smiling faces of Khmer children once again.
I cannot help but think… ‘that DANG news-feed…I wish I could stop getting updates!’
At this, I have to stop and pull myself back. The thought of, ‘I wonder if this is a little of what friends and family here at home, went through last year while I was one the race?’ (*light bulb!) It is not that I am jealous of them (okay maaaaaaaaaybe a little bit lot) but rather, I wish that it was me ‘out there’ enjoying those places, meeting people and simply living the life God has called me to live. Wild and free…each day being the next great adventure.
Yet where do I find myself?
Sitting in a classroom, or in the library finishing up one paper and immediately starting on the next… But truly I tell you, I AM happy where I am in this season of life. I really TRULY 100% am.
Why do I need to ‘go out’ to see the world, when the ‘world’ is LITERALLY at my ‘front door’ and in my university classes?
Yep. That’s right.
Korea, Germany, Paraguay, Indonesia, Venezuela and China are just a few of the places where the people are from who I have met recently.
Today alone, I was working on a Lab for one of my classes and, as I looked around at the 3 other faces before me, I realized that we had 4 different NATIONS represented there in a space no larger than an office space. How awesome is that? One of my TESOL Profs said something pretty profound on one of the first day of classes that I believe will stick with me for my entire life. It is something that I have always known in the back of my head and has been a part of my philosophy while traveling. It is also one of the reason why I push those around me TO travel as I know from first hand experiences (and friendships) the value in it.
She asked us to look at our classmates-many of whom are NOT Canadian and come from some of the places I mentioned above earlier. She said that, ‘yes we are classmates now, but the relationships and the friendships we, as students, are forming-have the potential to change the world. Like to SERIOUSLY change it! To change it on a political level.
Who knows…the feisty Korean next to me, might very well be one of their next presidents. Or the German sitting across, might someday have a role in leading their government to change. My new Venezuelan roommate back at home, might someday return to her home country with the desire (and passion) to eliminate poverty in her neighbourhood. The ‘kids’ I spent time with in Zambia, may very well someday BE the next Zambian President or, be the one to discover the cure for AIDS (YES LORD YES!!!)
Perhaps your thinking, ‘really Nikki? Not possible, ain’t never gonna happen. There is no way one person can change the world like that’. Yes they can. They have.
(Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr, Rosetta stone, Abraham Lincoln , Albert Einstein, Joan of Arc, Jane Austen, and Anne Frank just to name a few…oh and what about a guy named JESUS?!?!)
But how does that apply to ME? Here and now, especially when I see crazy photos of friends boating down the amazon, or experiencing yet another typhoon in the Philippines?
Simply state. It doesn’t.
BUT it reminds me of the GOOD work that GOD IS doing right here right now within my life. Yes, my ‘adventure’ now looks different…but why do I need to go ‘see the world’ when the world is right here? Change starts now. Change starts when I take an extra few minutes to help an international student with learning English. Change begins when I help my new Venezuelan friend (and roommate) move in and experience life living on her own for the first time in Canada.
And so, when my newsfeed/Instagram BLOWS up with photos and status’… it ultimately reminds me to PRAY for my friends who ARE overseas and for the CHANGE that GOD is bringing through them. Race on friends!! RACE ON no matter where you are!!
“My eyes are small but they have seen
The beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
There’s light enough to see
Oh, that From glory to glory
You are glorious
You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious
You are glorious
Which leads me to believe
Why I can believe
From glory to glory You are glorious”
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*This will be my last blog on this World Race website. IF you so desire to continue to follow the happenings that GOD has me on, and my journey through life…jump over to
And continue to follow along!!
Thanks so much to those who have supported me, encouraged me, loved me, prayed for me and all of those other wonderful things along my World Race Journey (and for those who continue to love and support me!) It means the WORLD to me!!
Love from ‘Canada’
