A race or a journey?

As Celebrity Race Across the World continues, Major Julian Watchorn asks if you’re journeying to or journeying with.

The challenge is simple. Get from A to B for no more than the price of the airfare – without flying, and without a smartphone or a bank card. Throw in the jeopardy of it being a race and it becomes BAFTA TV award-winning viewing.

In BBC One’s latest star-studded spin-off, currently airing on Wednesday nights, Celebrity Race Across the World again sets four teams of two on an adventure across continents. Broadcaster Kelly Brook, Ted Lasso star Kola Bokinni, Radio 2 host Scott Mills and broadcaster Jeff Brazier are accompanied by one significant other of their choosing to race 12,500km at ground level from the Amazon rainforest all the way to the Andes.

Leaving behind all luxuries and home comforts, the contestants need to rely on their partners and their wits to navigate from checkpoint to checkpoint, until they reach the finish line and claim the prize. 

Permitted to work where necessary to earn more cash, the teams have to find the balance between the drive to win and not missing the opportunities such an adventure offers – of experiencing incredible scenery and new cultures, and spending quality time with people important to them.

As the contestants make choices that may ultimately determine where they finish in the race, they learn what is most important to them.

They experience the reality that sometimes things don’t go to plan but are also blown away by the incredible, undeserved kindness of others.

This very dilemma is what makes the show so appealing and compelling, as it resonates with our own life journeys. For some, the destination is clear and the drive is strong to achieve their goals as quickly as possible no matter what – they can rest when they get there, wherever ‘there’ is.

But is it about the destination or the journey? Is it about the people that we meet along the way? The experience of travelling together with those we love and meeting others who may offer us kindness or to whom we might share something of ourselves? Is it about being who we are where we are and looking for God in it all – taking the knocks when they come and leaning into God’s love that sustains us?

Philippians 3 has much to say about racing. For those who are goal-focused, verse 14 can motivate them to ‘press on toward the goal to win the prize’. But rather than rushing on, pause and read again verse 12: ‘I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me’.

We are not saved to save ourselves and win the race to Heaven but to share the love we have been given with others. To be Christ as we journey with him as our partner.

The contestants on BBC One’s series would not have entered the race if they did not hope to win, but each will have to decide at some point: what is most important, the mission or the moment?

Reflect and respond

• Read through Philippians 3:10–14.
• How is God inviting you to join him in his mission?
• What moments is he offering to you to be his witness on your journey?