Well here it is, I am sitting in the South Korean airport about to board a plane soon to start the journey over sea's to come back home to the United States. I honestly cannot believe that this day is here, there were so many days that I really doubted and wondered if this day would ever really come true and I would ever really make it back home…
Being away for so long, at some points in the race, I couldn't even imagine what the reality would be like of getting to come back home….
Thinking these thoughts about the essence of what home is, for my last blog before I come home, I would like to share a short excerpt from one of my most favorite books that God has used to inspire my life on the race so much.
When I was trying to decide if I should come on the World Race a year in a half ago, I read this story on a blog and thought to myself…Wow if I go on this race, when I come back home, I need to remember and share this story:
if coming back home to the states to be with all of my my family and friends who I love so much is this amazing, just imagine what going home to heaven to be with Jesus for eternity will be like after the long race and journey of our lives…
Here an except from chapter 23 pages 157-158 in "Love Does" by Bob Goff:
Friends, Welcome Home
I used to think following God required a lot of navigation, but now I know all I need is a line and a circle
“There’s a tradition in the Transpac Race no matter when you finish the race, even if it’s two in the morning. When you pull into the Ala Moana Marina in Oahu, there’s a guy who announces the name of the boat and every crew member who made the trip. There’s a huge loudspeaker, and his booming voice bursts through the trade winds and welcomes each person home. It’s the same guy, and he’s been announcing each boat’s arrival at the end of every Transpac Race for decades.
I’ll spare you most of the details of the trip. Just know it involved a lot of water, some stink dudes, overblown stories of manhood, and lots of canned meats and chilli. Just when we came to the end of our supplies, we sailed across the finish line just off Diamond Head and into the marina. It was just a few hours before dawn. It had been sixteen days since we set out from Los Angeles in our little boat knowing very little about navigation. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a booming voice over a loudspeaker announcing the name of our tiny boat. Somehow, the way he said it, we sounded like we were the size of an aircraft carrier. Then he started announcing the names of our ragtag crew like he was introducing heads of state. One by one he announced all of our names with obvious pride in his voice, and it became a really emotional moment for each of us onboard.
When he came to my name, he didn’t talk about how few navigation skills I had or the zigzag course I’d led us on to get there. He didn’t tell everyone I didn’t even know which way north was or about all my other mess-ups. Instead, he just welcomed me in from the adventure like a proud Father would.
When he was done, there was a pause and then in a sincere voice his last words to the entire crew were these: “Friends, it’s been a long trip. Welcome home.”
Because of the way he said it, we all welled up and fought back tears. I wiped my eyes as I reflected in that moment about all the uncertainty that had come with the journey, all the sloppy sailing and how little I knew. But none of that mattered now because we had complete the race.
I’ve always kind of thought that heaven might be kind of a similar experience. I read somewhere in the Bible that there is a book of life. I don’t think that this book of life is full of equations, and I don’t think that it’s just a list of names either. I think that this book of life is more like a book of lives, a book of stories. I bet it’s about people traveling in the direction of Jesus, trying to follow Him. People like me who made lots of mistakes and midcourse corrections. It’s about people who stayed within the large circle of his love and grace, staying the course on a long line pointing toward him. And their names weren’t in the book because of what they did or didn’t do. They were in there BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS AND WHAT HE HAS DONE to draw a circle around them.
After we cross the finish line in our lives, I imagine it like floating into the Hawaiian marina when our names were announced, one by one. And at the end, perhaps simple words spoken by a loving and proud Father God will be,
“Friends, it’s been a long journey.
Welcome home.”
* As I come home to the arms of friends and family who love me, I pray that I will feel a glimpse of feeling what it will be like when I enter my true heavenly home in heaven and am greeted with the loving arms of my Father and Savior!
God Bless you all and thanks for being on this journey of the world race with me! Most of all thanks for being on the journey of life with me and living the amazing race of life that Christ has chose and created you to live!
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
– Ephesians 2:4-10
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with perseverance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.
Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne."
– Hebrews 12:1-2
