Since Launch I’ve been noticing this trend. It’s more than sharing. It’s sleeping where there is literally enough space for a body to fit horizontally. It’s taking a small portion when you’re starving so you know there will be enough for the end of the line. It’s interceding for those you don’t have a relationship with. It’s living in community.
New concept to me. I’m a ‘I like my space’ introvert. From missions experience in the past I knew this would not exist on the Race, and am aware that there are many more situations to come that make ‘personal space’ seem like Never Never Land. After living in a house with 45 other Racers for two weeks, it got me thinking this morning.
Who are missionaries? Why are we here? Why do we choose to live this way?
When I say, ‘Nothing is my own’, I mean it. Time is not owned by me anymore. My emotions are no longer mine to withhold. My energy got highjacked a few hundred miles back. I can’t really recall the days when I owned stock in personal space. After making these tallies I immediately began thinking about Jesus.
Isn’t that why we’re all here? To be Christ-like? So, Jesus. Did He ‘own’ anything? What was His while He walked the Earth loving prostitutes and teaching disciples? His time was not his own. He knew the final outcome and how He would spend his final days. He still gave freely and lovingly to all around Him. The dirty, the poor, the sinful. He didn’t become sullen, hide inside his iPod and check out because He was having a bad day.
Spending time reflecting on the way Jesus lived His life while He was here is encouraging me to be more selfless. Living a life preferring others above ourselves is a foreign concept to American society. Mine. Watch out for number one. No pain, no gain. You get what you deserve. Blah. Blah.
I am challenging myself to walk in the footprints of Jesus while He was ministering, ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ – Acts 17:28
