Latest news, I recently attended World Race Training Camp. The camp was a week long experience that focused on personal growth and exposure to the World Race culture. Training camp was filled with team building activities, corporate worship, and some very out-of-the-ordinary competitions.
If I was asked to describe training camp in a single word, my immediate response would be, “intense.”
Camping in the Georgia hills, eating foreign meals, and overcoming exhaustion describes the physical intensity, forcing yourself to recall and deal with painful issues from your past brings in the emotional intensity, and passionately worshiping and pursuing the God of the Universe qualifies as spiritual intensity in my opinion.
Among all the great things I learned and experienced at training camp, one lesson is still burned in the front of my mind. As I began meeting and talking to other racers, I quickly came to the realization that every person walking this earth has a unique story. So often I get caught up in the failures and successes of my own story that I become completely oblivious to the stories of those around me. Along with that, I also have the tendency to filter other people through my own story and expectations, creating unfair judgements and stereotypes, when in reality, each person is a unique human being. My eyes were opened wide to the truth that our stories are not just lists of events or states of existence, but great tales of love and redemption that find completion in the restorative power of Jesus Christ.
Here is one such tale.
There once was a young man with a very promising future. He was raised by honorable, God-fearing parents and he knew the difference between right and wrong. He encountered very few hardships in his youth and was blessed with many opportunities to further his status in society. He sought after education and worked hard to prove his worth to those around him, but there was an emptiness within his heart.
The young man began to question his father’s wisdom and felt it was time to make his own way in life. He wanted to decide what was right and what was wrong. Seeking fulfillment, he found himself compromising every boundary he had once held firm to. He desperately wanted to find love and friendship, even if they were cheap imitations. The counterfeit relationships and questionable living seemed to satisfy his desires for a short while, but they were never enough. The emptiness was always there.
When the young man had reached his lowest point, physically and emotionally broken, something deep in his soul compelled him to surrender. Fully aware of his pride, he cried out in faith and was suddenly filled with the Truth of his childhood. The evil that had infiltrated his heart and mind was no more. The pain and suffering brought on by his rebellion were gone. The love that he so desperately desired now consumed him.
The young man still has a very promising future, but maybe not to the world’s standards. He is no longer concerned with furthering his status in society and he no longer has to prove his worth to those around him.
It wasn’t some THING that changed the young man’s heart that day, it was some ONE. That One, the Lover of souls, is Jesus Christ.
This is my story. It is complete, but still being written. So is yours.
“Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again: he was lost and is found.” Luke 15:23-24
