An Open Letter to My Pre-Race Self:
You might not have immediate access to freshly baked chocolate chip cookies over the next eleven months. That’s just the truth. You might not wash your socks after every wear. It seems unlikely, and you might just have to extend the unconditional hand of friendship to a 65L backpack that is stubbornly placing all kinds of constraints on the amount of unnecessary “stuff” you think you should bring. For the record, I’m willing to be proven wrong on the first two points. The third is probably unavoidable.
It’s time you reconcile everything you don’t need in life with the God you can’t live without. He is enough. Whatever the challenge, wherever you are, regardless of your proximity to chocolate chip cookies and clean socks, He is enough. I’d like you to hold onto that.
Commit to your squad. Embrace the community of incredible people around you. In your weakest moments, when your head is telling you that only a bunch of Looney Tunes would sign up for eleven months away from everything they knew, remember that your one of those Looney Tunes. Let them remind you. Let them teach you. Walk together, and as you pull each other closer and closer to the God who sent you, recognize that in all the unfamiliarity, you’re simply walking each other home.
I’d tell you to laugh often and smile even more, but you’ve never really had much of a problem with that. Instead, I’ll tell you that you might have to learn how to cry. As much as you might like to give every child a home, cross hunger off the international list of social concerns, and, as an added bonus, adopt an innumerable collection of stray dogs all before lunch, there will be times when you feel helpless. In those moments, pray.
Embrace the journey. Celebrate the adventure, but recognize the beauty of the quiet moments. There are lessons to be learned in both.
Walk in humility. Walk in love. On the days when you’re tired, and dirty, and all you’d like to do is sit down and have a good cry, have the faith to take at least another step, and always one more step.
With all my love,
Shea
