The race may be over now, but that does not mean that I am out of the mission field. Countless people throughout my time on the race would say just that. Some people also said that The Race does not have to be the best time of your whole life, in fact I do not think it should be. With out a doubt, my Race has been the best year of my entire life so far. The people I met and loved, those same people that loved me like I had never been before, the work we did, the challenges we faced and overcame, the praise and worship, the funny moments and the dumb moments, and God being at the center of it all. It was all life changing for me. But I do not think that it should be the best thing that will ever happen to me. Something that was talked about a few times while on the field was going home, and not going home with the mindset of, nothing can be better then what I just experienced, because that mindset will make it hard to get committed to a church or community at home. I am not saying that I should not love and miss my time on the Race because I do, I am saying that the Race community should not be at the top of my expectation for what a good and loving community is. I have been home for two days and I have struggled a lot with this very mindset. Before the Race not being apart of any community, to the Race which is full of it, to back home where I have no community waiting for me. It feels sometimes like I went from point A to point B then back to point A, and I'd rather be at point C. A verse that was shown to me In The Philippines was Psalms 37:3-5, "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act." When I was first shown this verse, it was exactly what I needed to see at the time, and this verse has managed to show itself to me consistently since then. I believe that is because this verse is applicable to every start of every new season, and I am in a new season right now. As scary as it may be for me, as much as I may want to go back out in the world, this passage tells us to seek the Lord, "Commit your way to the Lord." To trust in the Lord, and he will give you your hearts desires. I signed up for the Race because I wanted to seek out the Lord. I didn't even realize that I was trusting him and his plans for me at the time, but the Lord acted and he introduced me to the community of believers that my heart had yearned for. I have learned to trust in God, to put him first and that is most important. The past nine months of my life is what happened when I put God first, and that is the difference of this past season, and my entire life before the Race. And that will be the difference of the first 19 years of my life, and the rest of it. You may understand now why I don't think this season should be the best of my life. That is limiting what God can do in someone's life. That is like saying. "I don't think the Lord can do better, I think he did the best that he could right now." That is absolutely not true, God created the Universe, and God is so so good!