It’s hard to believe, but I’m sitting at a coffee shop back in Dayton, Ohio, still trying to wrap my head around the reality of being back home from the crazy adventure known as the World Race. I sincerely apologize for my lack of blogs here at the very tail end of the trip, but I’ll try to catch you up with what’s been going on in my head over the next few days.
or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and
ever. Amen.�
Ephesians 3:20-21
Looking back on the Race now, I can’t help but try to think where I was before the trip began, and attempt to compare my expectations to the reality of what this trip was for me. Really telling has been a blog I posted before I left, “Alexander Supertramp and the pilgrimage compulsion“. In the blog, I quoted a section from a WR promo that I think has served to help wrap up this year for me:
The World Race taps into an ancienthuman compulsion to take a spiritual pilgrimage…the
urge to go somewhere and do something different. Many young people are
coming of age without being truly initiated into the rest of their
lives; they’re waiting for a meaningful rite of passage. They are under-challenged and ultra-coddled…This
generation wants to do more than just see the world and do good things
for it; this generation wants to be fully alive. This generation wants not just to be significant but to bring significance. The World Race seeks to be the impetus to set this generation’s growing momentum in motion.
More than anything, this was the cry of my heart coming on the Race – I wanted a place where I needed to depend on the Lord, where my faith
was tested, where I could literally give up what I had, to do as the
disciples in their response to Christ’s calling, as “immediately they
left their nets and followed him.� (Mark 1:18). More than I even understood, I needed some significant breaking point from the person I was, and this was the event to mark a shift into the man God has called me to be, the rite of passage and initiation like those seen in cultures the world over.
Ultimately, I believe this cry was satisfied over the last 11 months. When it all comes down to it, I got what I came out here for, and SO
much more. Ours truly is the God “who is able to do immeasurably more
than all that we ask or imagine�, as I was clearly desiring far too
little of God. The challenge that I desired, the rite of passage into
maturity that I longed for, God made a reality far sooner than I
anticipated “according to the power at work within us.â€� As they insisted to us in our preparation for the trip, it was undeniably far more about the work being done inside of each of us than it ever was about the exterior work and ministry we were doing to other people. This may be counter-intuitive depending on your perspective, but I don’t think there’s any shame in this reality. This was a mission trip, and I can testify of the seeds I know God used us to plant and water, and the fruit He is reaping in the nations from this year. That said, I can with more explicit detail expound upon the fruit in my heart that this year yielded, and I know that this has served the greater, eternal purposes of God in my life.
I guess the next step is figuring what all this looks like back home. I’m struck by the line above of being “under-challenged and ultra-coddled” – I perhaps never realized how easy and comfortable my life has been until I went on the World Race. The Race is a lifestyle of challenge, whether you are simply trying to communicate on the public bus to get into town, or you’re getting thrust in front of a congregation to “bring a word,” or being perpetually heart-broken at the surrounding despair. Coming home, the greatest concerns are too often keeping gas in the car or where to eat dinner or…is it bad I’m struggling to think of these? Of course, hardships and challenges are never the goal for their own sake; we aren’t seeking challenge, we are seeking the Lord. It’s realizing that we are called to give up our lives to make God’s glory known in this world, and too often in Scripture are we promised that this won’t always be an easy road. This year, I have tread upon the Lord’s path, and it certainly wasn’t easy, but it was sure worth it. Lord, let me not stray from the path you have laid out for me. Whether that path be a refining fire or a green pasture, I desire You.
