The world race gap year that I called home is over. My time with the beautiful group of people called “gap i” is over. It’s not easy to sit here and write this, reflecting on a life changing experience. I stumbled upon a photo of all the men at our second ministry location in the jungle of Costa Rica and I began to recall many moments, good and bad, that I had forgotten about. Memories themselves are complicated, but these memories, these memories are even more complex and hold a different kind of weight in my head. Simple as they actually are, it is almost difficult to remember them as real and not just a dream. I mean this in the most positive way that your cognitive brain can perplex. When I reach out and pull memories back into my head, I am filled with joy and happiness as if these memories are a trigger of something good and nostalgic. Immediately following this hit of dopamine, comes a natural sadness, a grief of the fact that these moments are gone. This momentary melancholy is the reason the memories must be fought for. 

I love the way my squad mate and dear friend Grace put it in an Instagram caption after we all got back home. She wrote,

“the last

9 months could feel like they never even happened. but i want

to fight for those memories & the new life i've found…” 

I could not have worded it any better. A new life found hits the mark of the theme of the World Race precisely. With this new life we’ve all found, an old, dead life, is gone. Going away with that old dead life is the bondage and captivity it held with it. Coming with the new life we’ve found is freedom, joy, and new circumstances. Circumstances that excite. 

To summarize, the World Race has been a vessel to bring me some of the best aspects of my life. The memories of the experience and the people are always joyful and sweet, but they are only remembered if fought for. More than that, they are fundamental to remember who we are now and how we have changed, grown, transformed, and been renewed since day 1. In all the memories, I see Jesus more evidently than I saw him in the moments themselves. This is because God shows me new things everyday, all the time He is constant. So I urge you, keep fighting for your memories of God’s faithfulness and goodness in your life. Fight to see what God is doing currently. Fight against the possibly crappy situation you’re in right now. Remember these exciting new circumstances that come with the freedom of the new creation you are in Christ Jesus. 

And thank you. Thank you readers who have invested time, money, prayers, whatever it may be. Thank you Mom and Dad for always pushing me to grow. Thank you to all my family who always supported me. Thank you Jesus for showing me yourself more and more everyday. Thank you gap i, for bringing Jesus to everyone around you. 

Here is said photo... this is a memory worth fighting for.

Thanks for reading.

Your friend,

Colin