Training camp, part 1: Being a chain-gang

   So finally I’m blogging about training camp. Wow, there’s so much to blog about. With that being said, I’m gonna break it up into parts so you don’t feel like you have to read a 4-page blog all at once. So let’s start from the beginning, shall we? 
   What an amazing experience training camp was. I suppose I’ll follow in the foot steps of a lot of my squad mates with their blogs and say that my experience at training camp definitely blew my expectations out of the water. So I arrive at training camp the first evening and begin to meet my 74 squad mates. (Yes, I said 74. Can you say overwhelming? But now they’re all family. Awww.) The first few days of training camp were focused on the self: breaking down the walls that we had and learning more about who we are in God. One of the nights,Michael HIndes, the president of the World Race, spoke on the Law and the freedom we have from it.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

   The law that once held us accountable for our sins has been replaced by the grace of God through the blood of Christ. After the talk, we did an exercise. We were given a rope, a marker, and a bandana. We were then asked to think about the things of the law that we still allow to stop us from experiencing the freedom we have in Christ and then write those things on your body (after being assured that the markers were washable). For me, some of those things were the shame of sin, the need for a “perfect” quiet time, etc. So after tat-tat-tattin up, we were told to bound our ankles with the rope that we were given. We were then told to take the bandanna and cover up one eye. We then took the rope that bounded our ankles and brought it up to bound our hands together. So here we are, 74 of us in the woods, bounded and partially blinded. It was about this time that I began to desire to do a criminal background check on the staff of the World Race. Ha! Just kidding! But anyways, we were told that the rope represented the Law. To represent how we as Christians so often walk through life with the chains of the law slowing us down, we were going to walk along a trail bounded and partially blinded.

   Isn’t it crazy how God can use a stupid exercise to speak to us? Several times during the walk, the rope would rub against my legs and cause discomfort, or I would get tired, or I would desire to be able to fully see out of both eyes. And every time, I realized that this represented how I so often walked through life as a Christian. Christ has set us free from all chains, but yet we so often still walk through life bounded by the Law. God, allow us to walk through life according to the freedom that you have graciously given us!

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.