I’m home. It’s almost so surreal, like I was just leaving yesterday for the World Race. Now it’s back to “REAL LIFE.” My experiences were beyond amazing. Some days were normal days and others were packed full of adventure. Some day’s I would hear God speak to me like crazy and other’s I sat in His silence. I have been asked,
“HOW WAS IT?”
No words come to mind, only a feeling of complete utter freedom.
Galatians 5:1 (The Message)
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
Freedom from expectations
Before I left for the race I was chained, harnessed and in slaved to the expectations of others. Instead of walking in the freedom that I had in Christ and the confidence of who HE made me to be, I allowed others thoughts and opinions to shape me. While on the world race and being in a community of people who genuinely love me my expectations have been healed. Every day instead of waking up to please those that are around me, I wake up with the expectation to truly please only one, my Papa God.
The really rad thing is that I found through this journey He just wants to be with me and that relationship seems to be just enough. In fact more then enough, I never expected Freedom to be so good!
Free to be me
When you are saturated in a genuine community you can’t hide from others. Everything hangs out for those people to see. Adding a foreign place with the element of community equals a super speedy process for personal growth. The good, the bad & the ugly are bared for your team to choose to pour into. I had the honor and privilege of being on teams that loved me through my pride, brokenness and some pure ugliness. They were willing to go to those dark places that I left bolted up because I thought if people saw me, as I knew I was in those places I would be rejected. Instead they opened their arms, loved me through each moment and encouraged me into freedom. Honestly this year I have learned to love myself on a whole new level, which has allowed me to love others in that same realm.
There is just something about being vulnerable that brings freedom.
Free to love like crazy
I thought I knew what love was until I went on the world race. I knew a fragment of love and then as I sat and held babies in South Africa that had been abandoned my love turned crazy. When I taught children in Swaziland whom no one else believed in God used my life to bring them hope, my love went crazy. In Cambodia building a house for a woman who was an outcast, my love went crazy. Or praying for the man who was dying from AIDS in a hospital where people get worse and never better, crazy love is the only thing that comes from you.
Crazy love only comes from falling crazier in love with Papa God and when you do it is a contagious passion that ripples more crazy love from your life.
Freedom from old perspectives
I used to be limited by my perspectives and part of that perspective was how I saw God. That manifested in how I perceived God worked in my daily life. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Holy Spirit was alive, active and in my life. However I had limited His activity in and through my life because my perspective of what He could do or be a part of was minuscule. I said I gave Him open reign but that wasn’t really true. Then there were crazy moments this year where God blew my old perspectives, showed me who He really was and I saw Holy Spirit move in ways that left me awe stricken. I had to make a choice. I could either choose to believe that God could be bigger then my understanding of Him or I could choose to see God through my own understanding. If I would of not been allowed the opportunity to see in a new way my perspectives would have been of the last season. When I walked in faith I saw a new perspective because my original limit of what I thought God was capable of was stretched. I saw God provide everything needed for this amazing journey. I saw God move in people’s lives and deliver people. I saw Holy Spirit make himself known at just the perfect moment.
If I would of stayed right where I was at, it would have been good but God wanted to take my perspectives from where I was standing and show me a glimpse of His perspectives and what He sees. He gave me new eyes to see the things He was waiting for me to see all along.
You have journeyed with me on this great adventure called The World Race and I could not have done it without your support. The greatest thing I can share with you about this journey is that this experience can happen in your life, right where you are at. God called me around the world to experience this, but this relationship and these freedoms can be yours right here at home.
My encouragement for you today would be that you would press into the freedom Christ has for you. He speaks clearly here and now as He spoke as clearly to me on the banks of the delta in Botswana. Your journey may not take you to the ends of the world but can be just as deep and fruitful as what I experienced this year.
I am back to “REAL LIFE” but never again will it be life as usual.
You are loved,
<3
Ash
#TeamAsh
P.S. I will be posting old blogs that haven’t made it on here yet. Check them out leave comments and share them. Also I will be answering the question “..so, what’s next?” Check out my blog: Strong alone. Unstoppable together.
