The honeymoon phase is over. 

I guess that makes it seem like I am suddenly miserable, which is not true. I am getting used to things however. In 4 days, I will have lived in Gainesville for a month. Everything is still going smoothly. My squad is still great, and there is no sign of wanting to choke each other half to death like the stories I have heard from past racers. I am gradually getting used to a lot of things about life around here, like the limited amount of food, washing clothes with a hose and a clothing line, and generally living at summer camp every day (which has never been my sort of thing).  

 My typical day begins at around 5 in the morning with a run, followed by callisthenic and resistance band exercises with reading in between sets. After an earned and enjoyed shower, I continue reading until breakfast at 8. I have started in the New Testament with the Gospels and the book of Romans, the ladder of which I have particularly enjoyed. When I am not reading scripture, I have started reading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which contains a different but still valuable wisdom of its own. By the time breakfast rolls around in the morning, my body, mind, and spirit are primed and ready to go. There is no better way to start the day. 

All of this has been an effort to put myself in a growth mindset for the duration of my trip. On this opportunity of the World Race, I have great potential to grow in the mind, body, and most significantly the spirit. This will take daily dedication and commitment to chasing growth and being responsive to my environment. This environment is built for it however. Our days are very structured, and we spend hours reading, doing instructive exercises, and receiving teachings about a variety of things. These could be about the characteristics of the countries we will be visiting and evangelising in so that we can know how to interact effectively in their culture. Or it could be about navigating team dynamics and working with your group through struggles. We have had teachings that dive deeply into scripture and give insight into what the word of God looks like, and we have had teachings about how to grow our relationship with God throughout the trip. Taking notes is encouraged, and everything is grounded in specific scripture. The environment encourages growth of the mind and spirit, and with the activities of the day and the work in the field, the body will follow. It makes the growing pains of attempting to grow and learn feel natural. 

I have increasingly understood how intentional the World Race is, and something that they have been sure to hammer home is what it means to look like and walk in Christ. This doesn’t mean growing a beard, long hair, and wearing sandals all the time, which is unfortunate because if it did I would be at least halfway there. Galatians 5:22-23 says “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law”. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the inherent characteristics of Christ himself. But there is more than just understanding these characteristics, or even practicing them. Walking as Christ means that we must LIVE these traits and make them second nature.  Christ operated in these characteristics without any hesitation or second thought, with no instance of straying from them or stumbling. It is much like the difference between Personality and Character Ethics that define the motives behind our actions. In order to walk as Christ did, I have to change our paradigms of thinking to adopt these characteristics as part of my own character and how I naturally operate rather than something that I actively concentrate on to keep up an appearance of righteousness. It is a reprogramming of the mind if you will. 

 As a normal and imperfect person, this is obviously a massive and essentially impossible undertaking to perfect. But getting as close as possible to Christ is the goal, so we are taught to consciously pursue him at any chance we get. There is so much more to understand what walking like Christ truly looks like. I am already learning more than I can keep up writing about, so I hope to slowly make my way through it and update throughout my journey around the world. In the meantime, slow and steady change is the game plan. Every day I can focus on reprogramming myself to adopt a fraction of the character of Christ, and every day I can grow my relationship with Christ as a result.