Well, today was my last day of World Race ministry. (Next month’s ministry is all on us to find and create) It hasn’t hit me yet. Don’t have words. Not ready for this thing to come to a close.
As I look off to the mountains towering above Port Au Prince in the distance, my mind races to all the other mountains I’ve seen. All the literal mountains I’ve climbed. All the figurative, spiritual mountains I’ve climbed. All the amazing views of God’s beautiful creation. All the people I’ve shared those views with. All the people I met when I turned around from those views.
Like I said, I don’t really have the words for all this. At least not right now. It’s as if I’ve lived a whole regular life’s worth of experiences and adventures in just 330 something days. I’m writing a book about it. I’d like to talk to all my creative writing professors who warned us never to write ourselves because we aren’t that interesting. They’re right, by ourselves we aren’t. But God’s story lived through us, now that’s a story worth writing.
Even so, I feel as though I could never quite capture all of this in the pages of a book. All the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings. All the tears, anger, desperation, sorrow, pain, laughter, wonder, amazement, joy, and growth. All the people, places, emotions, experiences, memories, and lessons.
I think the biggest challenge ahead of me as I return home is not just slipping back into my old life, or struggling to re-adjust to American culture. I think, instead, it will be communicating all that this journey has been. It will be a strong desire for people to understand where I’ve been and what I’ve been through. It will be a question of how I can help others learn what I’ve learned without romping around the world for 11 months.
Because what I’ve learned is going to change the world.
I’ve spent so much time seeking the right words to put in a blog or on a page. I’ve been trying to inspire my readers to see things differently. I’ve been trying to use words to teach new ideas. I’ve been trying to use words to wake up minds and spark a fire for change in my generation. I’ve been trying to use words to call upon the generations before and after mine to follow a new lead and unite for a common purpose. I’ve learned that change will never come through words alone. I can talk and write all I want, but revelations and revolutions flow through action.
So I will stay in action. If there has been one central lesson the Lord has taught me on this journey it would sound something like this:
Each day is new, each day I am new, each day this world can become new. That newness only comes from humility and trust in God, and following through on the action He is leading us to. Be like Jesus, and He’ll create the change through you.
If you haven’t been living under a rock, you know that things in the America I’m coming home to are not great. In fact, our nation and generation are DYING. Between violence, addiction, and suicide it almost seems hopeless. To be honest, I don’t feel totally prepared for coming home to it. Through media, social media, art, and commentary, I see a lot of pain in our nation. We are hurting because we see a giant amount of problems that we have no clue how to fix. But therein lies the problem. We are looking for the solution before we act. We keep wanting the government, or the school, or businesses, or the church to solve our problems instead of taking action and solving them ourselves. America needs more activists. We need to stop thinking about which side of the line we should stand on. We need to remove the line, and act in unity. From the birth of the United States, we’ve never been very good at this. We were founded on taking sides.
“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”
Mark 3:24
Well maybe, just maybe, we need to all be on the same side. Not just in our broken nation, but in our broken world. I just want to see humanity wake up. But, again, my words won’t do it.
As this journey will be leading me back to America soon, I need to make some things clear. This journey doesn’t end when I get back. This wasn’t just some year long experience that taught me things, showed me things, and changed my world view. It wasn’t just some adventure, travel, and experience. I’m not coming home to resume anything. I’m coming home to start changing everything. I’m new, and I’m ready to act. I’m ready to see this world of ours become new too.
I want to encourage those who will be welcoming me home to understand this. I’m excited and willing to share stories, reflect on experiences, look through photos and videos, and reconnect, but I’ve got a lot more in mind than that. I can’t come home to things as they were, business as usual, or just living life. I’m new, impassioned, inspired, and ready to start changing this whole world one action at a time.
I recently took a test called StrengthsFinder which very uniquely assesses a person’s strengths in personality, mindset, and action. It was very eye opening and taught me a lot about why I am how I am. In the test, there is only a 1 in some billions chance that someone has the top 5 strengths as you. My top 5 looks like this:
Futuristic
Ideation
Self-Assurance
Command
Adaptability
Basically it means that I am always focused on the future, my brain works by creating new ideas, I know myself and when I am right or wrong, I naturally step into leadership and starting new things, and I am always ready adapt and go with the flow and keep moving.
So as I am excited and ready to catch up on what’s been happening in the past and present, I’m ready to help you move into the future, because we are meant to be living with an eternal focus.
In terms of the kingdom of God, it means that if I’m close to the Lord and following Him, He’ll show me what lies shared and where we’re going, fresh ideas of how to get there, confidence in the path we are on or a different one we need to get on, you can follow me as I follow God, and we will figure out the problems along the way with His help. It’s a very encouraging place to be as long as I keep my focus on the Lord.
I’m not perfect. I know I’ll mess up and misstep. But I’m ready to learn from the pain and failure when I do. And I know that on my own I can do nothing. So, I will humbly submit the God’s guidance and authority. I’ve seen where His truth leads. It leads to new, restored, repaired, healed, solved, and good. He has done this in me, and He is ready to do it in ALL of us, the whole world.
So as I come home, be prepared for that. I serve the Lord and He is living through me. Where He goes, things change and things are made new, and He has called me, and you, and all of us, to go into all the world. And that means He will change the world through us. I’ve seen this happen all over the world for the past 330 some days. And, if you’re not sure how to do it too, I have the confidence of the Lord that I can show you through my actions.
“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1
So I say with all confidence? that through imitating Him in action, I’m going to change the world. As long as those actions are the work of Jesus Christ in me.
If we are truly following Jesus, we should all be able to say this.
Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I say these things with absolutely no arrogance, superiority, or holier-than-thou over-righteousness. I’ve simply learned that it’s not about me, it’s all about Him. And living out that simple idea in action is the only way we can change anything. Letting God change us first. It’s the whole reason we exist. He loves us so much that He crated us in His own image, so He can help us to be just like Him! We were created to live in freedom, joy, and victory like kings because we have Jesus Christ as Lord and King of Kings over us.
I hope this helps you understand who is coming home in just one month. You don’t have to believe that I’m going to change the world, but you’re going to see it happen. I pray that you’re ready to join me. God is going to make it happen with or without us on His side, so I guess we know which side to choose now.
