Training camp gives you a taste of the race life and it gets you pumped for what is to come. You anxiously await the next 6 weeks picking up several last minute things. Launch eventually hits you and it doesn’t seem real. Those few days at launch seem to last forever. Your first travel day is exciting, it is long and so tiring, but you finally are doing this thing. You are on the race!
Ministry is amazing. You are energized and ready to do the work of the Lord. Your expectations have been blown out of the water. You realize the race is nothing like you expected, but it is better or worse, depending on where you are situated, but you are living in another country. How much better can it be? You have made amazing relationships and leaving your first country is hard, but you are so ready to see what the next month holds. It is exciting, you are only in the beginning of this thing, you have so much more to learn and to grow in…. I could go on and on about all the emotions I went through, but that initial excitement is over.
The Race is an amazing adventure. Travelling to 11 countries in 11 months sounds amazing and don’t get me wrong it is amazing, but it is also very hard. The first few months of the race are great. You are all in, you love your team, you love moving every month and you aren’t tired and you are excited!
Now that I am in month 4 that excitement is not as strong. I love this life I am living, but in no way is it easy. In no way is it a vacation from real life, in some ways it is much harder.
Vietnam was the hardest month yet. The ‘honey moon’ stage of the race was over. I now had to choose to dig in, I had to choose to stay present. We were staying in a house where wifi was ever so present and it was easy to check out. It was easy to wish away the time and wish that I was placed at a different ministry site. It was easy to get stuck in the victims circle and say that I wasn’t happy.
My view of the race changed. It isn’t filled with amazing, fun adventures everyday. The days are long and packing up and moving every 3 weeks is tiring. You are never comfortable, you are always living outside of your comfort zone. This radical life becomes normal and you fall back into a routine.
I still struggle with waking up. I still struggle with reading my bible everyday. I still struggle with comparison, I still struggle with being present. I still struggle with contentment. I still struggle with stress. I still worry about what my future holds. I still struggle just like I did at home.
Just because I chose to abandon my life at home and step out in obedience to go where the Lord has called me, it doesn’t mean my life got easier. I am not on one big 11 month holiday, but I am on the other side of the world working and living life as I would at home.
The Honey-moon phase may be over, but it doesn’t mean I am going to stop loving this life I am living. Instead I have to choose to love it everyday. I have to choose to be content at where I am and step out of my comforts, because it is in those moments where I see myself grow. I see why I chose to do this trip and I am reminded that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
Life Begins at the End of your Comfort Zone
