Why we would be the worst and best couple on the Amazing Race: A peek into our lives

I grew up watching the Amazing Race and always thought how fun and exciting and AMAZING it would be to travel around the world with someone, experiencing crazy and beautiful memories. Then I married Grayson and moved halfway around the world to South Asia and discovered we would be TERRIBLE partners on the Amazing Race (read all the way to the end).

Looking back on two and a half years of living here and all the adventures/trips we had in America before moving to Asia, I’m pretty sure not only would we NOT win, but we would also be that annoying bickering couple that everyone dislikes (or is entertained by) on the show. Some of our biggest arguments happen when Grayson’s driving us on the motorcycle (and as a good wife should (not), I’m criticizing every turn he makes). We go on trips to a new place together and get so frustrated when we’re lost—which happens a lot. We blame one another for mistakes we both couldn’t have known how to avoid. We’ve yelled at ticket sellers before. We’ve been taken advantage of multiple times. We’ve almost missed trains plenty of times. We have paid WAY too much for things, not really knowing any better as well as been too trusting of the people selling it to us. I’ve gotten so angry with locals that all I want to do is things like stick out my arm and clothesline a guy coming around us on his bike way too close.  With my anxieties, how would I be able to complete some of the fear-gripping road blocks on the show? We yell, cry, and argue when we are out and about in this country. How could we ever imagine going on a race around the world together? And still come out as a happily married couple?

And yet, we ARE living an AMAZING life doing crazy things daily overseas. We ARE accomplishing really new and different tasks. We ARE surviving and thriving in a completely different environment. Though it’s not pretty, we have learned so many life lessons as well as faced and overcome many different obstacles/challenges. I have learned to face fears and anxieties head on. When put in difficult circumstances, it’s through learning and practicing phrases like “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I overreacted. That wasn’t nice of me to say” that we don’t tear each other apart, leaving lasting wounds and can continue joyfully living the life we’ve chosen. Most every successful thing we do now comes from a mistake we’ve made in the past from which we became well accustomed to saying “Well, we’ll know better for next time” rather than wallow in self pity or frustration.

So, my thinking is that struggling through life in a foreign country is crazy, fun, exciting, frustrating, angering, challenging, and ugly. And we are the better for it. We’ve done things we said we’d NEVER do (for the better). We’ve faced challenges and overcome them. We’ve worked through difficult arguments (caused by living in this place) with compassion and forgiveness. We’ve experienced wonderful and terrible things together as a couple that give memories for a lifetime. If we were filmed during this whole adventure, people would probably judge us hardcore for the way we act and the sometimes incompetence, but at the end of the day, we’re better people because of our AMAZING life. Not only that, I hope that our struggles and victories point to the Lord and bring Him glory.

At the root of our victories in hardship is our trust in the Lord. Because of all the new circumstances we live in, we’ve learned to depend on the Lord in many new ways and daily watch Him do miracles in our lives. It is through His love and grace and forgiveness that we not only learn to but are empowered to practice those same virtues. We remember that since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, [we] lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and [-] run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking [to] Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Whether you find yourself overseas, in the workplace, at home with children, or any other place, run YOUR race with endurance, compassion, grace, forgiveness, and a dependence on Him to supply all your needs, and at the end of the day, you will find more of Him and more joy in whatever struggle or wonderful circumstance you’re given. Even if the “race” getting there is not so pretty.

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