I have no idea why people believe that giving your life to Christ means you have to be perfect through following a bunch of rules and always smiling, but that’s a lie! For anyone who is unclear let me shine a light, following Christ doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, it means KNOWING THAT YOU DON’T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER BUT YOU ARE LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY ANYWAY.
For the next 11 months (1 month down, 10 to go
) I have committed to serving the Lord on the foreign mission field. Just as importantly I have committed to living in community with 41 other people and serving them as well. At first I thought that serving them meant praying with and for them, making meals for them, surprising them with food ,or cleaning their areas, and being positive. All of these things are good to do, but none of them really involve giving and serving them the with the best gift I have to give, myself.
All of us here are broken. It may come as a surprise to those of you who sponsor and support us, that yes God called us to serve Him in foreign communities, but He also called us here to heal in a safe place, wrapped in His arms. Jesus is enabling us to be His arms for each other so that we can fall apart and still know that we are loved and can bear witness to His faithfulness. The way we World Racers help each other is by acknowledging that we need help ourselves. Most of us have walls we use to block people out. Most of us battle with pride and shame and fear, but acknowledging our struggles puts us in the position where we can never rightly judge anyone, enabling us to have compassion for everyone especially each other.
I have struggled with many things in my life but I have never been vulnerable and open about my struggles because I thought the best testimony of what God is doing in my life is to only focus on and share the positive. While I truly believe we are to “enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise”(Psalm 100:4), God gave me more than positive emotions and experiences and they are just as much part of my walk and testimony to Him. I am made in the image of God which means my anger, sadness, frustration, and occasional despair are all emotions experienced by God and given by God to teach me as much as the joy. I am human with limits, and I do not have it all together and that’s ok. I can still serve God and my squad in my weakness, because His power is strongest when I am weak (2 Corinthians 12:9) . Jesus came to teach us how to walk this life, even in our weakness, burdens, and pain. I’m grateful for His example and I hope that through my honesty and vulnerability with my squad over the next 10 months, I am able to serve as well as He did.
