I have been so blessed by these past 11 months. I can’t even begin to write all of the lessons I’ve learned or prayers that have been answered, but I want to share a few.
1. Throughout my Race God has taught me how to be a follower. For the past few years God has been shaping me into a leader, but He used this year to show me that He only wants me as His follower. I’m not saying being a leader is a bad thing, not at all. I know God wants me to lead His people closer to Him in all the ways that I can, but He made it clear these past 11 months that the only thing He expects out of me is to follow Him with all my heart, soul and mind.
2. I was looking back in my journal from the beginning of the race today. In Rwanda I prayed a bold prayer that God would completely reconcile the relationship between my Mom and Aunt Rosa before I got home from the race. I completely forgot that I prayed this prayer, but I’m so glad I wrote it down. The Lord was so faithful and answered that prayer! It always brings me so much joy when they tell me about their lunch and dinner dates together. God is so so so good!
3. I’ve learned how to worship under any circumstances, even when all the people around me are singing praises in a language I will never understand. That’s the beauty of worship, you don’t need words; it’s about the posture of your heart. I’ve also experienced more ways to worship instead of only through singing praises. Before the race if you would have asked me how I worshiped God I would have told you by singing worship songs and living my life for God. Let me start with this, that is not a bad answer, it’s just missing a lot of things that I now do to worship.
4. Over the course of my race I have overcome so many fears it’s hard to count. Without this type of journey I don’t know if I would have ever overcome some of these fears. I’m so thankful to have traveled to 13 countries in 11 months and to have been pushed so far out of my comfort zone that sometimes I literally just sat in the fetal position and cried (this happened in Malaysia and I owe a huge to thank you Haley for listening to me and talking some sense into me). I needed this specific community around me to push myself to new levels of adventure and spirituality.
5. Living in constant community has taught me a lot. I have learned so much about myself and have been stripped down to my true self. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than being on a team of 6 girls who dive deep into the word every morning and ask you the hard questions about life and yourself.
6. I have learned to give feedback in the moment and to approach people face to face when conflict arrives. The World Race has given me a unique opportunity to grow in this area and I’m so appreciative of it.
(vulnerability moment)
7. I’ve been single for over a year and a half now and to be honest, this is the longest I’ve been single since I started dating when I was 12. The Lord has been so sweet to me throughout this time of singleness. I’ve grown in my confidence as a daughter in Christ more than I ever have before. God revealed to me some patterns in my behavior towards men and how it has caused hurt in my life. I’ve learned so much and feel more prepared for marriage than ever before.
8. Before I came on the Race I asked God to give me a person on my team who I could connect with. And for the entire 11 months I was given so much more than I could have asked for and her name is Haley Sewell, but you can call her Harry. I’m so blessed to been able to share every single memory with her. We took the term “shared experience” to a whole new level. Life is going to be so different without her by my side every second of the day, but I know we have a friendship that will last a lifetime.
9. I’ve learned to think less and do more. I like to rationalize things and weigh the pros and cons before making a decision, but I’ve learned that sometimes doing something just for the story that will come out of it is so worth it.
10. I’ve learned to pray bold prayers and have the faith that God hears me and is working even when I don’t see the results. Every time I prayed for a crippled woman or a blind man I knew that even though I didn’t always see them physically healed that God was still healing them spiritually.
11. There are some lessons that you will just have to witness in the change that has transformed me. And I ask that you to give me grace when I mess up and the old me rears its ugly head.
The World Race is over, but this journey isn’t. I will always take this Kingdom mindset with me everywhere I go.
I’ll just leave this passage from The Chronicles of Narnia here because it has so much truth and relevance to the ending of this story.
“but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful
that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories,
and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But
for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in
this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the
cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter
One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes
on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories,
and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But
for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in
this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the
cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter
One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes
on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
