Back in the real world… Or is this just what I have conditioned to believe is the real world? I believe God designed the real world to be what I have experienced in the past 2 weeks. Seventy-five strangers met at AIM, and came together because of our common thread in Christ and our desire to go into the nations. We felt incredibly connected even after the first several days. We shared with each other – we shared hurts and pains, stories, living space, meals, personal items. We listened to each other with no expectations or judgments, we encouraged each other, we loved each other, we prayed for one another, we laid down burdens and burned bridges together, and we carried each other. We confessed sins and we spoke truth. We laughed hard and cried daily. We were the church to one another. We were Jesus to each other. God showed up, and the Holy Spirit was at work.
Today is my first day home from training camp. It was exhausting in so many ways, but every minute was worth it. I do not want to go back to just living and complacently filling my days and minutes, waiting to leave. Ask me how this is going. And I ask you to examine your life. What is there that has no purpose? What do you want to change? How can you live in a community that is open and vulnerable and intimate? How can you be Christ to someone? I challenge you to –
Be the Change-. Step out and share with someone, go deep and take off your mask. I want to hear your story. Thank you for reading mine.
