Dear Reader,
Thank you all for taking some time to read my first blog! This may be difficult for some to finish, it might even be difficult for me to write this, specifically in our current society where we get acquainted on social media to short “click bait” posts of generic information that you didn’t even know that you wanted to know. I write a lot, but only ever to myself and never something I share, so I want to invite you into my world and to share some of myself with you.
So I figured it appropriate to explain why I’m starting this blog in the first place; but I’ll have to start somewhere in the middle of the story. About four months ago in September, I had to pleasure of catching up with a friend of mine, Jessica Robbins. She shared her journey with me, specifically about this program she joined a while back called The World Race. Initially I thought it was the old TV show where people ran around the world doing ridiculous obstacles and yelling at each other for drama and starving to death in the Mojave Desert, which I guess sounds fun for some people; I was quite wrong. I learned this World Race program is an 11 month mission trip to 11 countries, primarily focusing on meaningful short term work. There’s not a singular mission this trip is trying to accomplish, theres so much more to it than that, and I’ll come back to the mission goal in a little bit, first I want to tell you who I am and what I believe.
Here’s the meat of it all, so take a breath. What I believe is where my identity lies, it’s not something I can separate from myself, Ive tried and it doesn’t pan out well. Furthermore, I understand that what I believe is not something set in stone or typed on paper (or blog :P), but a journey of who I am, what I’m called to, and where I belong in this world. What I believe may be radical to some, others not so much. I have to start with my cornerstone 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love.” When I genuinely took this to heart my world abruptly transformed; I took every story I’ve heard, every verse, everything I thought I knew about God and replaced it with the word Love, Life began to mean so much more than a religion and idols I convinced myself I believed in.
Christ tells us “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” in John 15:9-13, and again Jesus was approached by a man who asked him, “Of all the commandments which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:28-31. “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” – 1 John 3:11.
This whole thing we call life is meant to be lived in Love; my God is Love, and its the path that Christ called us to so long ago. In reading about Christ’s life, you continue to learn how He defines Love. Sadly, we’re human and prone to convoluting something as seriously simple as this. The dictionary defines love as an intense feeling of deep affection, or feelings of romantic sexual attachment; which is a rather superficial and an empty definition. Theres much more to Love than we sometimes understand. What is Love, really? “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. But when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:8-13.
So there it is, my identity founded in Love, because God IS LOVE; I only wish I understood this so long ago.
What does this have anything to do with the trip? This mission of mine, this trip, is part of my journey and part of me understanding, experiencing, and sharing this kind of Love. Ive come to find the further I stray from Love the more of a rut I dig under myself. It’s about time I run towards Love and run this World Race. Im not perfect, nor will I ever be; I cant pretend to fully understand Love nor that Ive never hated something or someone or wronged someone, but now I have a deeper faith in what I know to be true and am hoping that it continues to direct my life. On this race I will learn how to love other people, how other people in other cultures love each other, how Christ walked his life in Love, and how to help people in multiple ways. On this trip, Racers accomplish a myriad of goals helping people in orphanages, schools, impoverished countries, building houses, helping the sick, and more than I can even prepare myself for. Furthermore, the race isn’t over after 11 months, the path of understanding and sharing love continues a lifetime, I’ll bring this experience everywhere I go.
In the next couple weeks Ill be sending out letters to as many people as I can to talk a little more about the trip and and to seek financial partners in my journey. During the next few months I will also be doing fundraisers and continuing to work my butt off and save as much money as possible to put towards the trip. The planned trip leave date is the first week of August 2017 (theres fallback dates too if theres any trouble in fundraising). Seriously, thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I hope you keep coming back to my blog for updates on this journey! I have a large list of people ill be sending a letter, but if you’d like to solidify me sending you one, just get ahold of me and ill get your address. Stay tuned, because theres so much more to it 🙂
Love,
Taylor Long
