Along the way, they re-invent themselves as men and women motivated by compassion who will take a torch of hope to the world’s darkest places. Some of us need a jolt to our system like the World Race provides.
Trading comfort for adventure
Our culture prizes comfort and perpetuates consumerism. It locks us into a lifestyle where we expect the soft, the savory and the entertaining on a daily basis. And this expectation corrodes the will to fight in us. We become OK with the status quo. We become dumbed-down, like domesticated farm animals rather than the wild thoroughbreds we were made to be.
The good news is that waking up to this circumstance, we Jesus-followers have the power to rediscover our true identity as world changers. Recognizing our comfort addiction, we need to do what any addict on the road to sanity does and throw off the chains that encumber us.
With this in mind, last year, we developed the World Race as a rehab for comfort-addicted American young people. It requires that lifestyle be cut to the bone, stuffed in a 50-pound pack, and the menu of toxic temptations in their lives left behind. They trade the noise and narcissism that muffles their God-thoughts and causes them to dream pedestrian dreams for the wide open possibilities of adventure on the ragged edge of a mobile life in a multi-cultural setting.
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It’s an awesome and amazing experience… and even tho I’m not there, I’ve witnessed heart-touching and beautiful growth in so many of the 2007 Racers thru keeping up with their blogs… it delights me and brings me to tears and laughter all at once… I wish there’d been something like this going on when I was younger… and even now, my 54-year-old self yearns for it… God bless…
Woohoo! I can’t wait!!!
This got me excited again about the journey ahead!
Seth – I love it! A rehab… I am always telling people that I am an American Christian in recovery. It is amazing to hear the cry of our youth turn from one of consumerism to one of, “Lord, please make us uncomfortable.” This new life I have in Christ is the most uncomfortable, stretching things I have ever experienced, but I NEVER want to be comfortable again!!!
-pastorj