And now for the big one.
3. Give yourself grace(others included).
Real talk.
There are going to be moments on the race when you mess up. Big time.
And there also going to be moments on the race when others mess up. Big time.
Within being on the race for less than a month, I learned this lesson quickly. I thought I would learn this by having to give grace to someone else–funny thing is, I was the one given grace in return.
Isn't that how it always goes?
For those of you who know me, I love pranks.
Goodness, do I love pranks.
To give you perspective on how much I love pranks, here are a few of my favorite things in life:
1. Jesus(duh.)
2. Mama T
3. Shane Claiborne
4. Jackie Chan
5. Pranks
You get the point.
I had FINALLY found the friend to whom I was going to begin prank wars with. My race was officially made due to this exciting discovery.
So naturally, I set out full of ideas ready to begin my first prank on the race.
As I snuck a hose of water through the window into the bed of my first target, I was stopped by a squad mate.
"Um…Sarah Anne, what are you doing with the squatty potty hose? You know that's what they use to clean the toilets with, right?"
Oops.
As the water poured onto my friend's bed, my face turned bright red, and my heart began pounding.
Shoot fire.
Whoop there it is. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to recover from this one.
Better yet, I had poured this nasty poop water onto the wrong bed.
The wrong stinking bed.
And even worse, I had poured it onto the bed of one of the most sincere and sweetest people on our squad(Kevin S).
At that moment I was praying that Harry Potter would just show up and let me borrow his invisibility cloak for the time being.
He didn't.
As Kevin rounded the corner and walked to his bed, I knew what I had to do. Everything in me wanted to just hide. But that's not how I work.
As I explained to him what happened, he just laughed, shrugged his shoulders and told me not to worry about it. I offered to wash everything that had been contaminated with the filthy water, and he just continued to laugh. As calm as a cucumber he said, "Sarah Anne, really this is not a big deal. I was going to wash my things anyways. Don't worry about it one bit."
And that was it.
He still has not brought it back up to me.
Things are going to happen on the race that are going to drive you insane. Someone will eat all of the peanut butter you managed to hoard for 2 months, your clothes may be taken by accident while drying, you may not perform to you full ability one day during ministry, or someone may pour poop water onto your bed. Regardless of what happens, give yourself and others grace.
When you are able to do this and adopt a positive mindset, your experience on the race becomes beautiful, and you are able to see God in ways you never expected.
Sit back, relax, and just give it all completely and totally to God.
Whoop there it is.
