Alumni: Michelle McBeath – Still Wrecked.

Currently I’m stuck in an airport. 

Sounds oddly familiar, right?
My roommates thought it was crazy that I was going to sleep in the terminal overnight. And yet, it felt comfortable. Somehow a bit normal. The only thing missing was about 51 other packs and persons to share in the experience. 

So I now sit in the airport that started the Race journey. Atlanta – September 2006. I remember landing and walking so slowing to the infamous “clock tower.” I was afraid someone would spot me – as if I would stick out somehow – “yes – she MUST be a Racer.” So humorous to look back on. I was stepping into the unknown. A big unknown. A long unknown. With lots and lots of strangers. And a weird blue and white circus tent. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

I walked at least 2 wide laps around that clock tower. Trying to catch glimpses. Trying to recognize faces. And then I sat at Wendy’s for what had to have been the longest lunch ever for the amount of food I actually consumed. My stomach was literally in knots. I had a rather random conversation with a nice man – we discussed the troops that were deploying seemingly every hour from the terminal. As much as I tried to focus on the distraction, I kept the clock tower in the corner of my eye. 

“Do I just walk up? Do I introduce myself? Who will I talk to? About WHAT?!!?” 

Honestly … I was a wreck. 

____ 

And here I sit …. 3 and a half years later. A wreck.

Not in the same way, but still very much a wreck. 

We talk a lot about planting “Kingdom” with our steps on the World Race. And while I believe wholeheartedly that Kingdom was planted across the world during my year and a half with the Race …. I know now that the one place that it’s most firmly planted … is within me. 

There are things that are within my heart that I did not know 3 years ago. Kingdom is hard to describe – to explain. But you can see and touch and feel and experience it.  And that desire is lodged deep within my heart. For His will to cover the earth. For His justice and righteousness to be manifested here. For the poor. And oppressed. And unloved. To speak of longings – is just weird. At least for me. But there is this longing within me …. For things to be made right.  And that – that is Kingdom. 

I’m wrecked because of this glimpse of Kingdom that I’ve tasted and seen and loved. 

So … sitting here in the same terminal where my life literally began? It’s good. 

And our God? Good as well. To have fallen in love with this man named Jesus. To love the Kingdom because we so dearly love the King. 

I can only hope to return to the Atlanta airport in another 3 years.
Maybe with just a shorter layover. 🙂