This blog is a collaborative, brought to you by Lauren Leabhart and Kylie Grace, two teammates who have shared the last 7 months of the race together, and have experienced community in ways that many in life never get to, the way that Christ exemplified and lived in true community with His disciples.
It was a rainy day in Uzhgorod, Ukraine, us girls were having coffee in a small café next to the river. We were surrounded by the aromas of chocolate and espresso as we sat and chatted with a new friend, Monica that we had met at a Mexican fiesta we had thrown the previous weekend. We listened to her as she talked about her life and shared her story, and the one thing that resounded within both of us was the lack of a strong community, especially women, within which she could grow, and be stretched and sharpened in Christ. We shared about our experiences and living life together over the past five months, and the more stories we told about our friendship the more she talked about desiring something that looked like the relationship that we had built.
Me and Monica!!
Up until this point on the race we had never really taken a deep look into the bonds that had naturally been created through sharing life together in very close quarters. When signing up for the race there is a lot of talk of growing and living in community with others, you really do believe that this would be easy as you have experienced community at home for your whole life. But then you get out there, and it looks very different from anything that you have ever seen. Community is hard, it is vulnerable, it is deep, it takes you pursuing others even when you don’t want to. You live with and spend 24/7 with a team of people that are literally strangers when you first start off, you learn their bad habits and idiosyncracies, and all of the annoying stuff that they do. You learn to love a person for who they are, where they are at, and who they are becoming. You have no choice, well, you do but if you choose to not love them and grow with them then you are losing out on a huge part of your race, and ultimately on learning how to shape your future community in the best way.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?
Thought one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
We are very lucky to have been placed on the same teams thus far. We have made multiple jokes about our differences, and how if we had never been put together like this we would never be friends. Kylie is more the free spirited, artsy, and nature oriented kinda gal that tends to only press into friendships that are directly in front of her and struggles with pursuing deeper connections, while Lauren is an athletic city girl, that tends to be the life of the party, and knows everyone but only really shares her heart with a few. So, how do these two very different worlds collide? We have learned that true community is about looking past the outward differences and digging into someone’s story. It is only by going after that person, showing interest in them and their lives and experiences that you really begin to know the heart of them. We have it all backwards, instead of seeing a person for who God created them to be and letting the inside shine through we make judgements and base our perceptions of that person on the outward. The past 7 months have taught us a lot about laying down expectations of what you think a person should be like and allowing them to just be themselves. I think by doing this you allow God to surprise you, when you can enjoy a person for who they are in Christ instead of looking for ways in which to benefit from the friendship. That is the beauty of community. Let go of how you think things should be and allow God take you out of the comfortable and bring you to a vulnerable place where you can allow someone unexpected to speak truth and life into you.
The two of us have let go of all of the expectations that we had for each other at the beginning of the race. We have built a relationship that is founded on Christ, we come alongside each other and encourage spiritual growth, we have grace for one another, and we see each other for who we really are. We love and laugh freely all the time. Through this we are able to not only see past our differences but, bring fresh perspective to our own sometimes stale viewpoints. We are able to call each other to a higher place, without fear of judgement or condemnation, because we see each other’s hearts and know that these changes will help to shape our Christ minded identities. We are freely able to be ourselves, and as strong willed women, who usually get their points across, we know that everything is spoken in love.
What we had previously thought was our perfect community, was not necessarily what the Lord had created us to live in, we have found the better way. To lift each other up, call each other out, and sharpen each other in Christ. Seven months in, two women brought together by happenstance have reached a point where we cannot imagine doing life without the other.
Allow community to happen, lay down all of your expectations and let God to show up and change you. It’s worth it.
Me and Kylie in Romania!
Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
