How do we prepare for a journey that will change us forever? What can we bring with us on a path that will refute everything we once were?
There is no way to describe the vast experiences shared during the ten days we met the squad we’ll be traveling with for the next year. There were outpourings of tears, constant laughter, boisterous worship, and even some occasional quiet reflection. Bonds were formed through shared suffering, personal support, intimate vulnerability and individual strengths. A family was formed that will see its members through thick and thin, in ways none of us can imagine until it happens.
The M Squad family, ready to share smiles with the rest of the world!
Since I know many of my supporters are curious as to my own personal experience, I’ll try to summarize it as best I can:
I hiked twenty miles in the first two days, stopping to drink water directly out of three different streams. I lived in a bathrobe for the remainder of the training camp. I enjoyed meeting an eclectic group of people and seeing how our very different life paths had led us to this crossing. I tried my best to stay awake during many of the the organization’s informational talks. (OK… so I didn’t really try my best, but I did stay awake through most of them anyway.) I got to know my own strengths and weaknesses through various team-building exercises; I thoroughly enjoyed seeing team members’ strengths blossom during particular exercises. I was reintroduced to my disgust for what a friend calls “rock-star worship music.” I was challenged to let go of the limitations I put on my faith.
This last challenge is certainly the answer to what we bring with us. For many of us, our whole lives have been a constant attempt to create a life for ourselves. We create an inner circle of family and friends that comfort us. We strive for a career to fulfill our need for accomplishment. We develop a lifestyle that we can use to identify who we are.
…But as each of these areas of our lives become full, we lose space for what else could be. Faith is said to be the belief in what we cannot see. But, as our horizon is filled with our own ambitions, we begin to believe what we see is all that there is. We forget that the world beyond our understanding is so much greater than we can imagine.
I will prepare for this journey by forgetting myself. I will bring with me acceptance. I will leave my self-imposed limitations behind.
I invite you to take this journey with me. I invite you to ask yourself what limitations you have put on your own understanding, on your own faith, and on your own life. I invite you to let it go…
