A lot of people come on the World Race because they want adventure. We want amazing, holy, Kingdom advancing adventure, all for the purpose of knowing our Savior more.
And a lot of days look like that. Maybe you will dance with widows for hours on end. Maybe you will hold newborn babies and pray with their mommies. Maybe you will raise funds for and pass out bibles to a village that have never owned them before. Maybe you will climb a mountain and see the most glorious sunset your eyes have ever beheld. Maybe your whole squad will splash in the magnificent rainbows of Victoria Falls together. Maybe you will see a leg grow. Maybe you will be trapped between two borders at night. Then the power will go out. Leaving a sky splattered with dizzying galaxies and the heavens shining above. Actually that last one probably won’t happen. That was just for C-Squad. The point is, there are a lot of days on the World Race that are obvious adventures. They are exciting and absolutely not something that would happen in a normal day in our lives prior to this journey.
They are something to write home about.
They are easy to pour your heart and soul in to. They are easy to write blogs about. They are worthy of Instagram and maybe you’ll even post a status on Facebook.
But then there are also those other days. The ones you didn’t think of when you said yes. Maybe it means shoveling pig poop for the fifth day in a row and your hands are shredded and your muscles are shot. No longer an obvious adventure. Just a test of endurance. Or maybe it is a mundane job. Something you never imagined doing. A factory type job. Like pairing boxes and boxes of socks to be distributed to retailers, at a center for adults with special needs. They don’t speak English. Oh and everyone is supposed to be silent. The hours are 8am-5pm with breaks for lunch and tea.
You see the World Race is a lot like marriage.
For the first few months, EVERYTHING is exciting. At least it was for me. I woke up ready to take on the day. I felt the thrill of the unknown. Seriously every day was an adrenaline rush. I had butterflies of excitement every time we left for ministry.
But then, the shiny wears off and it kind of becomes normal.
Yes we still go somewhere new every month. There’s still a new culture, language, contact, etc. Yes each day is new and full of possibilities. But then even that becomes predictable. By about month 6, you’re a pro at just slipping right in to a new setting. If you’re not careful, apathy and auto-pilot can creep in.
I remember wondering if something was wrong when I no longer felt the butterflies about going to ministry. I mean I still go everyday. And I still give it every ounce of my heart and passion. But something has changed in my FEELINGS. Am I doing something wrong?
But now that I am no longer floating on the high of my feelings, it is a choice.
When it comes to love I used to think that sounded dreadful. Choosing? Shouldn’t there just be sparks or chemistry or magic or something. The thought of the butterflies and the dramatic romance fading away killed me. No please don’t go. I want a lifetime of Old-Hollywood drama and sweeping musical scores as my leading man and I dance through life. I felt the same way as I watched my giddy feelings about the World Race fade away.
There is a chapter on marriage in C.S. Lewis’s book “Mere Christianity.” The first time I read it I wanted to throw the book across the room. I thought he was crazy and cynical and a kill-joy.
But I think I am changing my tune now. And I realize just how much the WR really is like marriage (I mean I’ve never actually been married). Yes the puppy love and the starry eyes might fade with time. But that is a good thing. That doesn’t require commitment. It can even be self-serving. Chasing the next big adventure. But sometimes we have to let the thrill go to really understand what love and service are really all about.
Yes, it is okay. Let it go. Because that leaves room for something deeper, something truer and something much more powerful to flow in and fill our lives instead. Once it is no longer about my feel-good emotions or my school-girl romance then it really is a love that only comes from and is sustained by the Father.
That’s not to say each day and every moment is no longer an adventure. But now it’s up to us, will we choose to stick it out serving humbly in love and commitment or will we forever be chasing the next big thing?
If you’d like to read the quote I referenced above from CS Lewis, here it is:
“But, as I said before, ‘the most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of our own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs’. Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after’ is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,’ then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense-love as distinct from ‘being in love’-is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.” -CS Lewis
