On the Race there are definitely moments that you are ready to go home. Unfortunately, some do decide to go home early for various reasons that aren’t for me to judge. For me the Race hasn’t always been easy and there were moments in Malaysia and Costa Rica where I contemplated going home. Despite my feelings, God never gave me confirmation to go home and so I have stuck it out. For a while, I did this by just simply surviving the Race. This didn’t work to well as circumstances always came up that made it hard to make it by.
Thankfully I was able to have my perspective shift from not just simply making it through the rest of the Race and simply surviving, but rather thriving by making the most of every day. Through a friend at the Awakening, God was able to push me into realizing that I had the choice to find joy despite my frustrations. My friend encouraged me to not just survive the last few months, but find how to enjoy this time and finish my Race well knowing that I gave everything for God and His glory. This changed my whole outlook on how I wanted to finish the reason.
I have now been in a really sweet season of the Race here in Ecuador. I have been taking everyday and trying to make the most of it, even if it seems dull or exhausting. God has shown me that instead of looking at my limitations on the Race, I can seek out the opportunities I do have on the Race and how I can make an impact for the Kingdom. Choosing joy and being a joy to others has been a major key in finding peace for myself on the Race. I have also noticed that since I have shifted my perspective and have been putting this into practice, my frustrations have pretty much subsided and don’t seem as big. I don’t have to think about what I can’t do, but rather find the things that I can do and make the most of every day.
With that said, something that has helped me through a lot of the hard times was a note I wrote to myself during training camp. During my times of frustration, it seems as if this letter was written by God through me for those exact moments. It’s as if He wrote it through me knowing that I would have these struggles and would need to read that letter from time to time. This is what the letter says.
